All ACEC-Ontario member companies working with any Ontario municipality are asked to please respond by Wednesday August 27th, 2025.
PROPOSAL

York Region has approached ACEC-Ontario with two proposed changes to their consulting assignments, specifically:
  1. Including a provision in the Regions consulting agreements that designates the consultant (or their subcontractor) as the constructor for any Construction Work performed during the design phase.
  2. Mandatory OHSMS certification in RFPs that involve construction work, or alternatively, create a roster of pre-qualified consultants who meet both the certification and technical requirements.
BACKGROUND

The Region has provided additional context to their proposal below:

  • The Occupational Health and Safety Act (“OHSA”) requires any project to be overseen by a constructor.
  • The OHSA defines a “project” to include any work or undertaking in connection with construction, and further defines “construction” to include erection, alteration, repair, dismantling, demolition, structural maintenance, painting, land clearing, earth moving, grading, excavating, trenching, digging, boring, drilling, blasting, or concreting, and the installation of any machinery or plant (“Construction Work”).
  • The Region’s consulting assignments often include services that fall within the definition of Construction Work; examples include boring or drilling under detailed design assignments, environmental assessment assignments, etc. This work is completed by consultants prior to the commencement of construction activities governed by the subsequent construction contract, under which the designated general contractor assumes the role of constructor. Consequently, Construction Work which is performed by consultants as part of their consulting assignments is currently not overseen by a designated constructor, contrary to the requirements of the OHSA.

Proposed Next Steps
  • The Region intends to include a provision in its consulting agreements designating the consultant as the constructor; to act as and fulfill all obligations and responsibilities of constructor under the OHSA in respect of any Construction Work performed by the consultant during the design phase. Alternatively, the consultant may designate the subcontractor performing the Construction Work as the constructor.
  • To ensure the consultant or subconsultant designated as constructor is competent to effectively fulfill the obligations of constructor under the OSHA, the Region intends to mandate that the consultant or subconsultant have an accredited Occupational Health and Safety Management System (“OHSMS”) certification – specifically, a Certificate of Recognition (“COR”), COR equivalency or ISO 45001 certification. If a consultant or subconsultant is not OHSMS certified, it must undergo the Region’s Alternative Evaluation Process, under which the consultant or subconsultant is required to submit its health and safety program for review by an independent third-party assessor retained by the Region and must successfully pass the evaluation.
  • For requests for proposals that include Construction Work, either OHSMS certification would be included as a mandatory requirement for proponents, or the Region may procure a roster of prequalified consultants that are both OHSMS certified and qualified to perform Construction Work (e.g. boring, drilling, etc.) and proponents would be required to select one of the prequalified consultants to perform the Construction Work under the consulting assignment.
MEMBER INPUT

All ACEC-Ontario members are asked to consult with their colleagues and respond to the 5 questions below.

Your responses will be anonymized, and no identifiable information will be provided to the Region. A final position will be submitted to various Ontario municipalities, and posted on ACEC-Ontario's member portal.

To ensure anonymity, this survey is being managed by ACEC-Ontario only. Any questions can be directed to Laura Lambie, Director, Government and Stakeholder Relations at llambie@acecontario.ca.

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* 1. Do you foresee any challenges to this proposal?

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* 2. Would you be open to sharing how you or your subs manage OHSA compliance in similar scenarios?

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* 3. Does your organization or the subs you work on Construction Work have COR, COR equivalency or ISO 45001 certification?

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* 4. Are you aware of other municipalities currently doing something similar?

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* 5. Do you have alternative suggestions for the Region to consider?

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* 6. (optional) If you would like to be contacted directly by ACEC-Ontario to discuss further, please include your email below. Alternatively, you can email llambie@acecontario.ca.

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