Ontario Construction Act prompt-payment regime — Oct 1, 2019; Bills 216 and 60 amendments effective Jan 1, 2026

Claim: Ontario's Construction Act (formerly the Construction Lien Act) prompt-payment regime came into force October 1, 2019. Under the Act:

• Owner pays the contractor within 28 days of a proper invoice.
• Contractor pays subcontractors within 7 days of payment from the owner.
• Disputes are resolved by adjudication through ODACC (Ontario Dispute Adjudication for Construction Contracts), with decisions interim-binding.

Bills 216 and 60 brought further amendments effective January 1, 2026, broadening adjudication scope, mandating annual holdback release, allowing private adjudicators, and tightening "proper invoice" deeming rules.

Source: Construction Act, R.S.O. 1990, c. C.30 (as amended); ODACC: https://odacc.ca.

Confidence: Verified.

For Candid: Construction Act compliance is part of the regulator-validated credibility signal stack Ontario GCs have access to ([[ontario-regulatory-stack-as-credibility-substrate]]). A builder client whose payment-practice page references prompt-payment compliance (and means it) is signalling something U.S. importers cannot match. Useful in long-form Candid content addressing sophisticated owners or commercial counterparties.