Articles 2019

Last month, the OBA Construction and Infrastructure Law Section hosted its 19th Annual Golf Day & Lunch Program at Eagles Nest Golf Club in Maple, Ontario. The sold-out event was a huge success thanks to our co-chairs, organizers, core sponsors and speakers.

In Sjostrom Sheet Metal Ltd. v. Geo A. Kelson Company Limited, 2023 ONSC 4959, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice affirmed several key legal principles, including the importance of carefully drafted pleadings, the validity of oral contracts, the significance of good record-keeping in quantifying damages, adherence to contractual default notice provisions, and the consequences that may flow from ambiguous or incomplete change orders.

In response to Walsh Construction v. Toronto Transit Commission et al., 2024 ONSC 2782, the Superior Court has a offered a number of valuable takeaways for the construction industry and construction law practitioners, including counsel and arbitrators, regarding what can be expected in the resolution of a complex construction claim.

On November 10, 2023, the Supreme Court of Canada issued a split decision in R v. Greater Sudbury (City). This precedent-setting decision significantly expands the health and safety obligations of an “Owner” under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

Ontario’s prompt payment system under the Construction Act has changed the way that parties to construction projects understand their payment obligations. But there are several significant gaps in the prompt payment scheme that produce significant uncertainty and risk for contractors. In this article, we discuss three such gaps.

With the introduction of prompt payment and adjudication into Ontario’s Construction Act, the pursuit of “rough justice” became a new tool in the tool-kit of project participants. In spite of its procedural and other frailties, adjudication arrived along with a legislated provision that “the determination and reasons of an adjudicator are admissible as evidence in a court.” The addition of this “admissibility” provision raises interesting questions.