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Professional Services: Finance, Bonding, Insurance, Construction Law, Business Practices

August 4, 2010

Council of Ontario Construction Associations calls for mandatory training for workers, firms

Suggestions from mandatory entry-level safety training to a new provincial safety body were among the ideas presented to Ontario’s health and safety review, a sample of industry submissions reveals.

August 3, 2010

Forestry recovery faces challenges: Dominion Bond Rating Service

A bond ratings agency has cast doubt over the sustainability of the better-than-expected recovery in Canada’s forest products industry.

July 29, 2010

Ontario launches construction workplace safety campaign

Work Safe Today — Go Home Tonight. With those six words, the province has launched a construction workplace safety campaign it hopes will start a culture shift to improve worker safety.

July 16, 2010

British Columbia’s Evergreen Line project back on track

The B.C. government is looking for potential bidders to build the long-delayed Evergreen Line, reflecting a change in the financing market for such projects.

July 16, 2010

Canada has avoided LEED liability issues

LEED and other green-feature building projects continue to form a larger percentage of the Canadian construction market. To date, no Canadian projects have failed to achieve the LEED status they were aiming for, either due to contractor or project team errors.

July 14, 2010

New evidence in New York crane accident case

Polyester straps blamed for breaking and spurring a deadly crane collapse held fast during an experiment designed to simulate the disaster, a videotape shows.

June 25, 2010

Lawyer defends use of straps in deadly New York crane mishap

A reckless rigger’s safety shortcuts caused a crane collapse that killed seven people, a prosecutor said as the man’s manslaughter trial began June 23. His lawyer said the rigger was being unfairly blamed for bad decisions that set up a vulnerable tower of metal.

June 24, 2010

Alberta School Alternative Procurement project benefitted from early documentation

An Alberta construction team recently outlined how they designed, commissioned and built 18 LEED schools in Alberta, on a P3 contract, with a month to spare inside a 20-month timeline.

June 18, 2010

Canadian Construction Association seeks shorter payment period for government contracts

The Canadian Construction Association (CCA) is addressing the issue of shortening the period it takes the federal Treasury Board to pay contractors on federal government contracts.

June 11, 2010

Contractors warned of LEED liability

Canadian contractors need to be aware of the risk factors associated with the U.S. Green Building Council’s Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) rating system, says a leading construction lawyer.

January 19, 2007

Study raises questions about actual costs

Public-private partnerships in British Columbia have sparked $4.7 billion in construction projects since 2002, but critics say taxpayers may end up paying more than they bargained for in the long run.

January 19, 2007

Interior environment requires careful consideration

As the link between adverse health effects and mould exposure grows, liability for insurance and other industry groups – including those in the building sector – are likely to increase.

January 19, 2007

University research takes aim at efficiency

In the overheated Calgary construction market, the last thing one would expect from competing companies is collaboration. In a bid to improve industry efficiency, several construction powerhouses are collaborating for a unique research project.

January 19, 2007

Digital documents raise legitimacy, storage concerns

In some construction industry contracts, a letter is not deemed to be an official communication if it is sent via email.

January 19, 2007

Accountability Act casts wide net around work

Depending on how meetings are arranged and their purpose, under changes to Canada’s Federal Accountability Act engineers, construction company employees and members of other professional organizations may find they’re now considered lobbyists — with heavy penalties for failing to identify themselves and their interactions with government.

January 19, 2007

Keep those old liability policies

Ever dispose of something one day only to find out the very next day that you could have used it? The construction project has been over for a few years or your annual general liability policy has been renewed several times so there is no need to keep the old policy, right? Wrong!

January 19, 2007

Non-compliance a sticking point in legal battles

In 1981, the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in Ontario v. Ron Engineering changed the legal landscape of invitations to tender.

January 19, 2007

Simple steps to maximizing your surety credit

Surety is a form of credit, much like banking. Having spent the past 20 years in both the surety and banking industries, I have developed an appreciation of the characteristics demonstrated by the most successful contractors. Many of these traits happen to be the key areas surety underwriters focus on, and if put into practice, should result in greater credit being made available.