Richard Wong
June 3, 2019
Osler partner Richard Wong tells Canadian Lawyer that it took “three tries” for Ontario to get its construction lien legislation in place. In her article, Marg. Bruineman explores how Ontario is enacting the second phase of its construction lien legislation — which will come into force on October 1, 2019 — and how there has been support for a potential national initiative as well. The article explores the background to the legislation, which introduces a prompt payment scheme as well as a mandatory adjudication system. Richard, Chair of Osler’s Construction and Infrastructure Group, says the revamping of the newly named Construction Act was long overdue.
“Projects have become bigger and more complicated over the years,” Richard tells Canadian Lawyer. “The size of projects now are in the billions of dollars when they used to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Projects are becoming much more multi-faceted.
“There’s so many layers. What has happened is that the payment process has bogged down as a result of having to filter all of these layers.”
Richard also says he sees any potential federal initiative as “a harmonization of the federal and provincial regimes to encourage consistency, which is helpful when similar projects are carried out in different jurisdictions.”
For more information, read author Marg. Bruineman’s article “Construction lien reform” on June 3, 2019 in Canadian Lawyer. For the latest developments, check out our Canadian Prompt Payment and Construction Law Reforms page, which will be updated regularly.