When the Supreme Court of Canada released its long-awaited decision in R. v. Greater Sudbury (City), construction project owners in Ontario had hoped for more clarity over the scope of their OHS obligations. Instead, the split decision issued appears to result in more questions than clarity.  The decision has generated a lot of immediate discussion involving owners, employers, OHS specialists, and OHS lawyers about what the decision means for “owners” of construction projects and “employers” who work on them or contract for the services of others on them, including what each of those parties, as well as “constructors” ought to do in response.  Now that some time has passed to reflect on this important decision, three senior OHS lawyers from our National OHS & Workers’ Compensation Practice Group will discuss it and address the issues and questions arising from it in a complimentary webinar.

The webinar will provide practical comments about various issues arising from the case, including:

• What this case really changes in relation to longstanding, existing, broad definitions of workplace parties and their duties in Ontario;
• Managing those changes to minimize risk of Ontario OHSA liability – particularly for owners of construction projects in Ontario;
• The use of quality control inspections or audits by owners;
• Workers or contractors of the owner entering the construction project, or parts of it, to perform non-construction work;
• Owner balancing potential “employer” obligations and risk of becoming the “constructor” of the project;
• Potential contract pitfalls and desirable amendments to contract language and other documented processes for “owners” and employers; and
• The contextually sensitive approach to due diligence for owners.

We hope you can join us for this complimentary session.

For more information, please send an email to info@mathewsdinsdale.com 

Subscribe to our OHS & Workers’ Compensation Advisor mailing list here to ensure you don’t miss the email announcement.