Important COR Dates You Need to Know

As 2016 is rapidly approaching, non-residential construction companies in Ontario need to start working towards the Certificate of Recognition (COR) standard in order to stay competitive.

Major buyers of construction in Ontario (Toronto Transit Committee (TTC), Metrolinx, Greater Toronto Airport Authority (GTAA), Infrastructure Ontario (IO) and York Region) have chosen to use COR as the required safety standard for prequalification and in 2016, some significant changes come into effect.

Recently, the TTC, Metrolinx and GTAA have announced their rollout process for COR and released some crucial dates that you will want to put in your calendar. We’ve outlined these dates so you know when you need to be COR certified in order to bid on these projects.

It should also be noted for those who are already ‘in-the-know’ that the TTC has changed their original rollout plan, so be sure you know the most recent rollout dates shown below.

Toronto Transit Committee Dates

Although the TTC originally stated that all projects would require COR in 2016, since the industry has been slow to adopt COR, the TTC has pushed back their original date. The TTC announced that they made this change “to ensure that the number of certified contractors is sufficient to allow for competitive bidding”.
TTC will require COR certification for prequalification by:

• January 1, 2016 for contracts estimated at greater than $5 million.
• January 1, 2017 for all contracts, irrespective of value.

Metrolinx Dates

Metrolinx is still requiring COR in 2016 for all projects; however, they do have some leeway and are allowing those who are working towards COR to still bid on their projects in 2016, as long as their COR status is achieved by these respected dates:

• COR™ “Registered” status with IHSA by October 1, 2015, regardless of estimated project value.
•  COR™ “Internal Assessment” status with IHSA by April 1, 2016, regardless of estimated project value.
• COR™ “Certified” status with IHSA by April 1, 2016, for construction projects with an estimated value in excess of $25 million.
•  COR™ “Certified” status with IHSA by October 1, 2016, regardless of the estimated project value.

GTAA

GTAA has been working with the IHSA to adopt COR as their prequalification safety standard but they appreciate that it does take time for contractors to achieve COR. In light of this, the GTAA has decided that they will not require COR for prequalification until 2017. In the interim, the GTAA has their own health and safety prequalification which they refer to as “COR light” . This standard goes hand in hand with COR and helps contractors prepare their health and safety program for achieving COR before the 2017 deadline.

• Must meet GTAA Health and Safety Standard or “COR light” for prequalification in 2015-2016
• In January 2017, COR is required for prequalification for all GTAA projects

Infrastructure Ontario
Currently, Infrastructure Ontario requires COR for all Alternative Financing and Procurement projects. The requirements for COR are built directly into their bid documents for these projects. IO will be increasing the scope of projects which require COR in 2016 but have not yet announced the details of this rollout process. eCompliance will provide these dates as they become available.

York Region
York Region will now accept COR as an alternative to ISNetworld for prequalification on all projects. This change came into effect in June 2015 so now all construction companies enrolled in the COR program can qualify for bidding without ISNetworld registration.

Although these revised dates do give companies a little bit more time to work towards the COR standard, that doesn’t mean that you should put off getting started. COR can be a difficult standard to achieve for those with weaker OHS programs or larger companies. In order to ensure that your company will achieve COR in time to qualify for bidding on these major projects in 2016-2017, you should get the process started now rather than waiting till it’s too late.