DON WALL — MCAC board member Wayne Davidson hosted a panel discussion on legal solu-tions for a changing construction landscape at the recent MCAC conference, with construc-tion lawyers Jason Annibale and Geza Banfai as expert panellists.
“And I think the nefarious players are going to learn really quick that they can’t operate the way they used to operate.” The discussion focused on two relatively modern trends that Banfai said the mechanical sector should become aware of as it deals with today’s “constant change”: new project delivery models such as Integrated Project Delivery , progressive design build and, to a lesser extent, alliance; and innovations in dispute resolution, such as arbitration.
First it starts with an owner who gets it and champions it, he said. Then, “At the design and trade level, the contractor level, you also need people who understand the model, who can work collaboratively in the truest sense of the term.” Arbitration, now codified in legislation in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta, is the industry’s “better way.”