Ontario Construction News staff writer
Today, Ontario Construction News launches a new service that allows you to check the publication of Certificates of Substantial Performance (CSP) from all media currently publishing these notices.
The Certificatesubstantialperformance.com site provides a simple keyword search tool to research CSP publication in Ontario Construction News and two other publications and websites.
“Our goal is to provide a resource for owners, payment certifiers, contractors and others who need to research when and where CSPs have been published,” says OCN publisher Mark Buckshon. “Since we and another organization have started publishing these notices in the past year, you would need to search in three separate places to even start the process of determining whether a CSP or other legal notice under the Ontario Construction Act has been published,” Buckshon said.
“Our new service will simplify the process, though we encourage anyone who wants to be sure to still check all of the sites, because we aren’t claiming perfection.”
Buckshon said he hopes anyone using the Certificatesubstantialperformance.com site and planning to post notices will weigh the cost, speed and convenience of service, and legal compliance in making their decisions.
The long-established Daily Commercial News (DCN) is undeniably compliant with the regulations, but it is clearly by far the most expensive option and – while its service speed has increased – it is still the slowest service on the market, taking upwards of two to three business days from placing the notice to publishing it, Buckshon said.
Another website claims almost instantaneous publication and charges relatively low fees, but all orders must be immediately prepaid by credit card. The Daily Commercial News (DCN) has published a legal interpretation that this site is not truly publishing a “newspaper” as described by the Legislation Act (2006). The competing site organizers have published their own legal interpretation saying that a common-law definition of an “electronic newspaper” is reasonable because provisions in the Ontario Construction Act allowing the newspaper to be in “electronic format” contradict the Legislation Act’s wording.
“When we designed Ontario Construction News, we looked at both the Ontario Construction Act and the Legislation Act’s newspaper definition in designing our publication,” Buckshon said. “Clearly the Ontario Construction Act’s regulations allowing the newspaper to be published in electronic format means it doesn’t need to be printed, but we sought to meet the other definition standards as set out in the Legislation Act including that it be published in ‘sheet format’ and at ‘regular intervals’.
“We do this by publishing our daily newspaper on a regular daily cycle – it is uploaded each evening shortly after midnight — in a PDF sheet format with the look, feel, and format of a conventional tabloid newspaper,” he said. “In fact, it is quite easy, although also quite expensive, to print a copy of our newspaper on newsprint on demand.”
Ontario Construction News’ rates are significantly less expensive than those offered by DCN, while they are competitive with the third website, “when you consider the certainty of compliance, our ability to handle the keying and data entry work, and payment options which do not require prepayment,” he said.
“And we can provide proof of publication just hours after you place your notice, if you approve the advertising proof by 5:00 p.m. the day before each business day.”
You can complete your multi-site search for CSP publication at www.certificatesubstantialperformance.com and can learn more about publishing notices in Ontario Construction News here.