Canada: Arbitration & Dispute Resolution

La médiation obligatoire est entrée en vigueur au Tribunal des droits de la personne de l’Ontario (« TDPO ») le 1er juin 2025 et la médiation n’est désormais plus facultative pour la plupart des nouvelles requêtes. Dans le cas des requêtes déposées après cette date, les parties doivent s’attendre à devoir participer à une médiation avant que l’affaire puisse progresser vers une audience ou faire l’objet de tout autre examen par le TDPO.

Mandatory mediation took effect at the Human Rights Tribunal of Ontario (“HRTO”) on June 1, 2025, and mediation is no longer optional for most new applications. For applications filed after that date, parties should assume that they will be required to participate in mediation before the matter moves forward toward a hearing, or any other consideration by the HRTO.

Following are our summaries of the civil decisions of the Court of Appeal for Ontario for the week of September 14, 2026.

Much has been said about Manitoba’s recent change to its basic limitation period for construction disputes, which generally reduced the time to start lawsuits from six years to two years. However, the passage of two years may not always be the end of the story for an unpaid contractor or subcontractor.

When a building owner issued hundreds of design changes worth over $2.7 million in extra work but refused to grant schedule extensions, could they still claim liquidated damages for delays? The BC Court of Appeal's decision in CIMIC Morningstar Investments Ltd. v. Chandos Construction Ltd. examines four critical principles that construction parties must understand when managing delay disputes, including notice compliance, promissory estoppel, and the prevention principle.

La Cour d'appel de l'Ontario a statué qu'un contrat de construction conclu en 2020 demeure régi par l'ancienne Loi sur le privilège dans l'industrie de la construction, malgré l'entrée en vigueur de la nouvelle Loi sur la construction en 2018. Cette décision soulève des questions cruciales pour les entrepreneurs et propriétaires sur les délais applicables et les droits de privilège dans les projets de longue haleine.

A CRA refusal is not always something that can be challenged through the normal tax objection and appeal system. The first question is usually whether the taxpayer is disputing a discretionary CRA decision, which may be reviewed by the Federal Court, or disputing the correctness of a tax assessment, which generally belongs in the Tax Court of Canada.

British Columbia's Construction Prompt Payment Act introduces mandatory payment deadlines and fast-track adjudication for construction disputes. Owners must pay contractors within 28 days, contractors must pay subcontractors within seven days, and payment disputes can be resolved through binding adjudication outside the courts. The legislation also shortens the holdback period under the Builders Lien Act and eliminates standalone liens against holdbacks.

The Court of Appeal for Ontario's recent decision in Minotar Holdings Inc. v. Ontario examines the constitutional limits of provincial legislation that shields the Crown from civil liability, particularly for claims of misfeasance and bad faith by government officials. With a 2:1 split decision upholding broad immunity provisions in the Greenbelt Act, the case raises fundamental questions about the balance between legislative supremacy and the superior courts' constitutionally protected role as guardians of