April 17, 2008

Ontario Realty Corporation takes CCDC 2 one step further

PATRICIA WILLIAMS

staff writer

Collingwood

Working in consultation with an industry liaison committee, the Ontario Realty Corporation (ORC) is making changes in the way in which it does business with the design and construction sector.

Earlier this year, the Crown corporation announced it would begin using CCDC 2 as the foundation for its construction contracts — a significant shift from its previous practice of developing its own custom contracts.

Since then, ORC has developed a draft set of standard supplementary conditions to be used in tandem with CCDC 2, the industry’s flagship standard contract document.

Those supplementary conditions have received approval in principle from the board of the Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA).

The draft is being reviewed by other key associations.

“We’re on the cusp of a new way of doing business on the project front,” Mike Greidanus, senior vice-president of project services told contractors attending a seminar at the OGCA’s fifth annual construction symposium.

ORC awards an estimated $350 million in contracts annually. It is considered a major customer of Ontario’s design and construction industry. Highlights of the corporation’s proposed new business model were unveiled at the symposium.

Greidanus, who leads the corporation’s project management branch, said development of a standard consultant contract is also on the agenda. The Ontario Association of Architects’ (OAA) standard client-architect contract could serve as the foundation.

ORC also is revising its process for prequalification of both general contractors and consultants, Greidanus said. A significantly reduced amount of information will be required from applicants. Registration will be online.

Other changes that are in the pipeline include:

•A re-engineered billing process to respond to complaints about delayed payments.

• Enhanced up-front planning on projects to provide greater certainty of budgets, schedules and other project outcomes, thereby minimzing disruptive changes during the project cycle.

Work is expected to continue over much of this year on detailed development of the corporation’s business model. That is being undertaken in consultation with the strategic opportunities committee.

The proposed changes got a thumbs-up from OGCA president Clive Thurston, whose association is represented on that committee.

Thurston said adoption of CCDC 2 in conjunction with standard supplementary conditions will stabilize the bidding and tendering process.

“We’ll know what to expect,” he said. “Anything that is going to be different will be highlighted. We won’t have to go through every document every time to try and find out what changes have been made.”

Thurston also welcomed the ORC’s plans to streamline the payment process.

“This is an issue which has been raised by many of our members,” he said. “ORC has acted very aggressively to change that process. I think it is going to make a huge difference when it is implemented.”

Also represented on the strategic opportunities liaison committee are OAA, Consulting Engineers of Ontario and the Association of Registered Interior Designers of Ontario in addition to ORC itself.

The committee currently has three working groups. They are focused on: standard contracts; prequalification, evaluation and procurement; and improvements to ORC’s project management outsourcing model.

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