Adjudication was introduced in Ontario’s new Construction Act (the “Act”) as a new legislated process to resolve construction disputes outside of the courts or traditional alternative dispute resolution processes. For the first time, the Ontario Dispute Adjudication for Construction Contracts (“ODACC”) previewed five adjudication processes, costs and an example adjudication timeline—all as part of the application package to become an adjudicator. This first look surveys a number of potential adjudication processes and highlights the summary nature of the regime as envisioned by the Act.
At the time the Act was enacted, the adjudication provisions were not yet in force, but scheduled to launch on October 1, 2019. The Act contains several deadlines and requirements that form a procedural framework for adjudication, but only recently has that framework been set out in five pre-determined adjudication processes. These pre-determined processes are contained in Schedule “A” to the recently released ODACC adjudicator application package. Proposed pre-set adjudication fees are also included at Schedule “B” in the event the parties are unable to agree on a fee with the adjudicator. It is not yet clear whether these pre-determined processes will change, if more will be added in the future, or if the fee schedule will be modified over time at ODACC’s discretion.
Please log in to read the full article.