Ontario runs the most heavily amended construction-payment framework in this cluster, with a real change that took effect on 1 January 2026, alongside a separate set of Occupational Health and Safety Act duties. Both are below, read from the regulator's own pages rather than a paraphrase, next to what Ontario's own workforce data says about the decade ahead.
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Every payer under Ontario's Construction Act must hold back 10% of the value of work as it is done or certified. Since 1 January 2026, accrued holdback must be released annually rather than at the payer's option — a real, dated change confirmed twice on ODACC's own site, which states amendments to the Act “came into force on January 1, 2026,” per ODACC's transition-rules page. Ontario has no percentage test for substantial performance in the way Alberta does — Alberta's 3%/2%/1% tiered test does not carry over to Ontario, and this page does not claim it does.
A lien must be preserved within 60 days of the relevant trigger — publication of a certificate of substantial performance, completion, abandonment or termination, or a claimant's own last supply — and then perfected, by commencing an action and registering a certificate of action on title, within a further 90 days after the last day the lien could have been preserved. Missing the deadline does not end the right to sue for the money owed, but it ends the lien security itself, per treadstonelaw.ca's own explanation.
ODACC, the Authorized Nominating Authority under the Act, publishes no prompt-payment day counts at all on its own prompt-payment page. Figures such as 28 days for an owner to pay, or 7 days for a contractor to pay a subcontractor, appear only on law-firm pages carrying an explicit “as of writing, verify with a lawyer” hedge. This page states the mechanism — a proper invoice starts a fixed statutory clock, and a notice of non-payment must be delivered before it closes — without asserting a specific day count as current Ontario law.
Unlike prompt-payment counts, ODACC publishes exact adjudication timings: an agreed Registry Adjudicator has four days to consent or the Authority appoints one within seven; the Claimant's documents are due within five days of appointment; the Adjudicator has thirty days from receiving those documents to issue a Determination; and a Determination-ordered payment must be made within fifteen days of the Determination issuing, per ODACC's adjudication-process page. Fees run from a flat $1,300 for claims under $10,000 up to an $850-an-hour rate above $1,000,000, per ODACC's fee schedule.
A joint health and safety committee is required at any Ontario workplace regularly employing 20 or more workers, or on a construction project expected to run three months or more with 20 or more workers regularly employed, per ontario.ca's own guide. A Notice of Project must be filed once the expected cost of labour and materials exceeds $50,000, and a critical injury or fatality requires immediate notification followed by a written report within 48 hours, per ontario.ca. Penalties for a violation run up to $2,000,000 for a corporation and up to $1,500,000 for a director or officer, per ontario.ca's guide to Part IX.
Ontario's own 2024 employment figure fell 4.4%, per BuildForce's national review, even as a separate BuildForce release dated 20 July 2026 puts the province's 2025 construction workforce at 442,300 tradespeople, with 92,000 projected retirements and 34,100 additional workers needed by 2035 — a combined 126,100-worker hiring requirement against roughly 98,800 projected new entrants, a real shortfall BuildForce itself flags, per the same release.
Annual release became mandatory as of 1 January 2026 — before that date it was the payer's option. The change is confirmed on ODACC's own transition-rules page, dated and quotable.
No. ODACC, the body that administers the Act, publishes no day counts on its own prompt-payment page. Figures like 28 or 7 days appear only with an explicit lawyer-verify hedge from a law firm, so this page describes the mechanism rather than asserting a specific number as current law.
A 30-minute call is enough to see where AI keeps an Ontario payment and safety calendar current.
