PAGE OCR 2 – July 2009 – The Ontario Construction Report
Supplementary Conditions – Why are they necessary?
CLIVE THURSTON – Special to The OCR Construction Report
“big lie” spread by some doing and tell you its Ok?
who have never even read No, they will want to rein-
The Canadian Construc- standing and can rest as- the document, the CCDC vent the wheel to earn their
tion Socuments Committee sured that the documents documents are not created fees.
(CCDC) develops and pro- have been vetted by many by contractors for their ben- For several years now,
motes the use of standard in- experts with input from con- efit. I have offered an open through our Consultation
dustry documents most tractors, architects, engi- challenge to any procure- not Confrontation policy, the
notably the CCDC2 a con- neers and owners. ment or in-house legal rep- OGCA has been successful
tract between Owner’s and a Anyone acquainted with resentative to debate that in negotiating agreed-to sup-
Contractor for a Stipulated this process knows that ex- with me in front of their em- plementary conditions and
Sum project. The OGCA perts across the country vol- ployers and in seven years tendering practices that have
like many organizations unteer their time to provide none have accepted. been acceptable to all par-
across the country actively input and that the volunteers So do we need the end- ties. It has led to on going
support this endeavor as a who form the CCDC com- less number of supplemen- dialogue with those owners
means to avoid confusion in mittee work hard to address tary conditions we see being allowing for the updating
the industry. A standardized issues and create a balanced attached to these docu- and changing of terms and
document means everyone document that serves all ments? Do they really serve conditions without con-
starts from the same under- stakeholders. Despite the a purpose, make the contract frontation and without
better, level the playing
Ontario General Contractors Association President
charge.
field, or do they simply try
Clive Thurston
The wording has begun
to shift risk from one side to somewhat generic to be able how they carry on business. to become a standard within
another. to address the particular cir- These conditions can and Ontario eliminating the need
In my opinion the answer cumstances in each area. It do create Supplementary for owners to create new
is both yes they do help and would be fair to say that Conditions. The problems clauses. The OGCA recently
no they cause problems. projects are not simply arise in knowing when to completed talks with the
Nothing is simple in this cookie cutter copies of each stop. We want to ensure that OAA to formally recognize
business and with the com- other and therefore have dif- instead of creating an oner- consistent wording of a
plexities of today’s projects ferent requirements. It is ous contract that will lead to number of conditions that
it never will be. also fair to say that some a call from the OGCA a fair are regularly changed by
If we accept that the owners like a Crown corpo- document is produced. owners. The benefit of this
CCDC contracts are created ration or Municipal govern- To be clear does anyone is obvious first as the owner
using information from ment may have special actually believe that private has accepted the CCDC for-
across the country it there- requirements that they must for profit consultants will mat and accepted supple-
fore follows that it will be meet and that will affect actually look at what you are mentary conditions vetted
and understood by the in-
dustry confusion and con-
frontation have been
removed. Owners such as
the Ministry of Health, City
of Vaughan, Peel Region,
Ontario Realty Corporation,
many Universities and other
owners have found that by
working with the industry
they have seen less con-
frontation and better re-
sponse to their bids.
While some still feel that
there should be no addi-
tional conditions the reality
is that for the hard work that
CCDC does to be accepted
we must accept some addi-
tional conditions that our
clients may need. But those
changes should be worked
out based on two stipula-
tions the first that the CCDC
is the foundation of the con-
tractual process and that any
additional conditions be of
value to the project and fair
to all parties. There is no
need to reinvent the wheel
just enhance the ride.
Clive Thurston is presi-
dent of the Ontario General
Contractors Association.
For more information, visit
the OGCA website at
http://www.ogca.ca.
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