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ARTICLE · 17 MAY 2019

Know Where You Stand: Priorities Under The Ontario Construction Act

Miller Thomson
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In 2016, the Ontario government released Striking the Balance: Expert Review of Ontario's Construction Lien Act, which proposed substantive changes to Ontario's construction legislation.

CanadaReal Estate and Construction
Elyse Calvi
Elyse Calvi
Paul Guaragna
Paul Guaragna
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In 2016, the Ontario government released Striking the Balance: Expert Review of Ontario's Construction Lien Act, which proposed substantive changes to Ontario's construction legislation. Ontario adopted the majority of the review's proposed amendments and Ontario's Construction Lien Act has since been renamed the Construction Act (the "Act").

The Act's first set of amendments became effective on July 1, 2018 and the second set of amendments are scheduled to take effect on October 1, 2019.

Interestingly, Striking the Balance recommended that no changes be made to the Act's priority provisions. Section 78 of the Act sets out the general priority of construction liens and secured interests on a property. This section is focused on protecting holdback funds and takes into account the competing risks that mortgagees and construction trades face during a construction project.

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