b'COVER STORYTHENEW NORMALFOR CONSTRUCTION WHAT CHANGES CAN THE INDUSTRY EXPECT COMING OUT OF COVID? By Warren HeeleyONE OF THE PHRASESmeasures, the province should continueprompt payment requirements. In CONSISTENTLY USED about theto move in the right direction. short, construction companies are now COVID pandemic is the new normal.spending money they do not necessarily Every industry, every social and economicSo what is the new normal for thehave, and they are not being paid in a process, and every Canadians way ofconstruction industry in Ontario? Therereasonable period of time. life has been touched by the pandemic.is no question that the industry has There is hardly any aspect of life thatweathered the COVID storm, but it hasThe new normal for construction involves remains untouched. According to TCAtaken its toll. Companies have endured president John Mollenhauer, the newstop work orders, freezing of the claimsa wide variety of changes. This includes: normal is that things are abnormal. process and delay notices, all enacted by More costs on the job site for health the provincial government and resulting in The construction industry is now into theconfusion on many construction sites.and safety based on the provincial coming out phase of COVID. This isCOVID protocols;not to say that the pandemic has ended.Construction companies have returned to However, the economy is largely backSubscribing to potential mandatory to work as governments monitor thethe job site with little money in the bank opening of each stage and the publicsto pay bills and wages, thanks to depletedand extremely costly Certificate of response to maintaining COVID healthcapital reserves and the suspension ofRecognition (COR) requirements as and safety measures. Ontario is in ahard-fought prompt payment legislationmore and more private and public much better place than it was in Marchduring the worst days of COVID. Inconstruction contracts demand this as of 2019, and with help from the majorityaddition, many project contracts arepart of contract bids, particularly since of Ontarians who are following the COVIDfrom the old regime and dont fall underthe onset of the pandemic;14Quarter 3 2020 BUILDERSDIGEST'