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 โIt has been almost two years since theย Federal Prompt Payment for Construction Work Actย passed as part of theย Budget Implementation Act 2019, and yet the legislation still remains in limbo with no legal coming-into-force date.โ
โPublic Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) has informed CCA this is partially due to a further need to clarify and finalize regulations internally,โ the association said in an Advocacy Alert published on March 5.
โThe 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 federalย construction projects,โ the CCA statement said.
โThe RFIโs 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.โ
The lengthy RFI document makes clear that PSPC wonโt 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 โinput from the construction industry to identify the elements required to develop a robust federal prompt payment regime.โ Reynolds and Vogel conducted extensive consultations before making more than 100 recommendations that resulted in the new Ontario Construction Act in 2018.
โThe 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,โ the government said in a 2018 statement.
ODACC project manager Elise Teitler said ODACC is preparing its response to the federal governmentโs RFI, and would be interested in offering a similar service to its Ontario adjudication resources federally.ย She said ODACC has commenced approximately 60 adjudications since the Ontario Construction Actโs adjudication system went into place in October, 2019.
She said the adjudication model has been successful in Ontario โPeople seem quite happy with the system and the adjudications,โ she said in an interview last Thursday. โWeโve only had positive feedback.ย People are working through the system and getting used to the adjudication process.โ