York Region clears way for Ontario Construction News to publish CSPs for its municipal projects

Ontario Construction News staff writer
The Regional Municipality of York has updated its construction contracts to allow contractors to advertise their Certificates of Substantial Performance (CSP) in Ontario Construction News (OCN).
The decision was relayed in mid-January (2025) in a letter to OCN publisher Chase from Tatana Luneyko, senior counsel, construction law, at the municpality.
“We have recently updated the Region’s construction contracts to allow for publication of Certificates of Substantial Performance by contractors in any construction trade newspaper that complies with the Construction Act.” Her comments followed correspondence from Chase to the municipality after some contractors reported that York Region would not recognize notices published in OCN.
Alireza Hajiyousef, project manager, Capital Delivery and Engineering, Property Services Branch, Corporate Services Department, provided the reasoning for the policy in an earlier communication: “With respect to the publication in the Ontario Construction News, we received separate letters from the publisher and the Surety Association of Canada explaining the publisher’s compliance with the Construction Act, Hajiyousef wrote. “Please note that the Region does not dispute the Ontario Construction News’ compliance with the Act or being a proper venue for publication of notices under the Act. “However, we note that it is a clear requirement of the Contract to publish the Certificate in the Daily Commercial News (DCN), which is intended to simplify the process for potential lien claimants by ensuring they are informed of all publications in one source.”
In a follow-up letter to Dan Kuzmnyk Regional Solicitor and General Counsel Regional Municipality of York, Chase wrote: “From a practical purpose, I can’t see how restricting the publication of notices in DCN really simplifies ‘the process for potential lien claimants by ensuring they are informed of all publications in one source’ since, in the overall universe of projects, potential lien claimants will still need to complete their search among all compliant publications.”
Chase also noted that Ontario Construction News has set up a search tool, certificatesubstantialperformance.com, that allows anyone to search for published notices in all the publications currently posting CSPs and other Ontario Construction Act legal notices. "On top of offering the best customer service in the industry, the universal search engine was worth the investment to show our commitment as the best option for publishing," he said.