Law Times

Page 4 November 14, 2016 • Law Times www.lawtimesnews.com claims, a claim in relation to se- curities, set-offs and deductions, as well as delay issues. "This potential limitation could give rise to jurisdictional arguments as counsel may right- fully claim that an issue is not proper for adjudication on the basis that the payment dispute is really derived from a negligence or impact claim," says Abbott. At the moment, there is no statutory requirement in On- tario to adjudicate and it is hoped that introducing adjudication to the process could remove the gridlock that plagues construc- tion projects when unresolved disputes between parties grind them to a halt. The report said that many who participated in the consul- tation process criticized the cur- rent dispute resolution process as too lengthy and expensive. "The great benefit of adjudi- cation lies in its potential to quickly unlock contractual grid- lock in regards to issues such as disputed change orders, and set-offs, allowing funds to f low promptly down the contractual pyramid," the report said. Under the proposals, adjudi- cators will issue interim binding decisions within 28 days so that parties can continue work on the project but can also revisit the issue once the project is finished through further litigation or by appealing the decision to the courts. Lawyers say this will bring a lot of the dispute resolution and litigation to the front end of pro- jects rather than the back end. "It's meant to break the log- jam of project disputes, where parties just stop working be- cause they can't figure out how to go forward in harmony," says Robinson. Lawyers Bruce Rey- nolds and Sharon Vogel, of Bor- den Ladner Gervais LLP, who wrote the report, were not avail- able for an interview. LT NEWS NEWS NEWS or quantity surveyors who are independent from the dispute, have seven years of relevant ex- perience in the construction in- dustry and complete a training course. The provincial govern- ment would select a group of in- itial adjudicators until a training and qualification system is de- veloped. Neil Abbott, a partner at Gowling WLG, says the pro- posed adjudication model for Ontario would have limits on what you could adjudicate, un- like the U.K. model, which has no limit on the type of issue. In Ontario, adjudication would be limited to the valuation of work and materials, monetary Continued from page 1 Dispute resolution process criticized as costly, lengthy address the genetic information in their files?" asks Quigley. "I can imagine inadvertent disclosure would be rampant." Quigley is also concerned about the section in the bill that says the prohibition doesn't ap- ply to "a physician, a pharmacist or any other health care practi- tioner in respect of an individ- ual to whom they are providing health services." "In my line of practice, we usually talk about health-care practitioners who are treating people, but providing health ser- vices is such a broad term," says Quigley. "Does it include people like insurer examiners or defence medicals and people who are not actually treating people? Could the information then get disclosed through the back door? "My insurance company can't get that information, but if they hire a doctor to assess me, does that doctor then get to get that information indirectly be- cause they're excluded?" Quigley says she "would have liked to rewrite this legislation to add some more protection for the individual, because the average individual is going to be asked to sign a generalized con- sent across the board." Federal Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould says the bill is "an important step towards helping prevent genetic dis- crimination and protecting the privacy of Canadians." She says, "The government is seeking amendments to the bill to ensure that federal legislation does not intrude in provincial areas of jurisdiction and to ad- dress certain policy concerns. "It is clear that federal action alone cannot ensure the protec- tions that stakeholders are call- ing for," she says. "For this reason, the govern- ment will engage the provinces and territories in discussions with a view to develop an effec- tive and comprehensive strategy around the use of genetic infor- mation." Rob Oliphant, a Liberal MP who represents the riding of Don Valley West and is the bill's sponsor in the House of Com- mons, says that in all of the time the bill has been debated both in the Senate and the House of Commons, no provincial gov- ernment has expressed concern. Seven provincial governments wrote letters to that effect, some of them indicating outright sup- port. However, federal New Dem- ocratic Party justice critic Mur- ray Rankin, a former law pro- fessor at the University of Vic- toria, says he is concerned that those government amendments would limit the bill to the ability to make a complaint under the Canadian Human Rights Act and the sections dealing with the Canada Labour Code, tak- ing out the sections that create the criminal offence. The use of criminal powers had been noted by constitu- tional scholar Peter Hogg as a mechanism to give the federal government jurisdiction in pre- venting discrimination. "I think those are very valu- able parts of the bill, and I'd be very disappointed if somehow the government thought that leaving it a shell would be do- able," says Rankin. The committee plans to hear witnesses over three meetings, starting Nov. 15. 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