Articles

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.

In Praxy Cladding Corp. v. Stone Lamina Inc., the Ontario Superior Court reviewed the process for amending pleadings in proceedings under the Construction Act, and in doing so, provided important clarity as to what constitutes an admission, as well as the distinction between an admission from a pleading versus an admission arising out of an examination for discovery. The authors consider the key takeaways from this decision with respect to pleadings and conducting examinations for discovery.

A summary of the use of artificial intelligence in the Federal Court.