Ontario Construction News staff writer
The federal government is seeking guidance on how to structure and implement an adjudication system to facilitate prompt legislation for federal construction projects.
The Request for Information (RFI) issued at the beginning of February and due on April 6, is a follow-up to earlier communications as the government inches towards implementing prompt payment legislation passed two years ago.
The Canadian Construction Association said in a news release that “It has been almost two years since the Federal Prompt Payment for Construction Work Act passed as part of the Budget Implementation Act 2019, and yet the legislation still remains in limbo with no legal coming-into-force date.”
“Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has informed CCA this is partially due to a further need to clarify and finalize regulations internally,” the association said in an Advocacy Alert published on March 5.
“The department seems one step closer to doing so and recently released a Request for Information (RFI) requesting industry feedback regarding a proposed approach to establishing an adjudicator authority related to disputes in federal construction projects,” the CCA statement said.
“The RFI’s objective is to solicit feedback that could help Canada develop a comprehensive and competitive Request for Proposal (RFP) that would enable firms or associations to bid to provide the services of an Adjudicator Authority to support the adjudication process.”
The lengthy RFI document makes clear that PSPC won’t be bound to any specific responses or recommendations. However, the document indicates it is looking at examples of adjudication authorities both internationally such as the Adjudicator Nominating Bodies in Britain, or Canadian such as the Ontario Dispute Adjudication for Construction Contracts (ODACC).
In developing its legislation, the federal government had sought guidance from Bruce Reynolds and Sharon Vogel to obtain “input from the construction industry to identify the elements required to develop a robust federal prompt payment regime.” Reynolds and Vogel conducted extensive consultations before making more than 100 recommendations that resulted in the new Ontario Construction Act in 2018.
“The federal government will use the proposed recommendations to inform the development of an effective legislative solution that will direct terms of payment and provide for an adjudication process for federal construction contracts,” the government said in a 2018 statement.
ODACC project manager Elise Teitler said ODACC is preparing its response to the federal government’s RFI, and would be interested in offering a similar service to its Ontario adjudication resources federally. She said ODACC has commenced approximately 60 adjudications since the Ontario Construction Act’s adjudication system went into place in October, 2019.
She said the adjudication model has been successful in Ontario “People seem quite happy with the system and the adjudications,” she said in an interview last Thursday. “We’ve only had positive feedback. People are working through the system and getting used to the adjudication process.”