The Alberta Construction Association (ACA) is urging government officials to do away with its past contracts clause, which they say is unfair to its members.
Ken Gibson, ACA executive director, explained the clause was implemented without warning, derailing an amicable, ongoing process.
“As a public sector owner, Alberta Infrastructure is interested in evaluating the performance of their vendors,” said Gibson. “Our members are quite happy to be held to account for their performance, so we worked with Alberta Infrastructure on the Vendor Performance Management Framework.”
Gibson said the industry was told that the program would be continuously approved in a collaborative process.
“Out of the blue, without really any real notification, the Government of Alberta introduced the past contracts clause as an interim measure until they build up more knowledge under the framework. They have unilaterally decided they want to build up some kind of data and process for the immediate term while getting data and knowledge for the Vender Performance Management Framework long term,” he stated.
Gibson explained the clause is retroactive and not transparent, meaning contractors are facing consequences they were never aware of for past decisions and they are only learning of it after they have bid on a new project.
“You don’t know as a bidder in 2020 what your standing is,” said Gibson. “You can do all the work on the bid and had you known where you would have been scored you might not have pursued that. That’s not very fair. At a penalty of 10 per cent of bid price, that is going to take you out of the running for most competitions.”
Gibson said the wording of the clause says the penalty comes into effect if the vendor has “failed to cure” a default. But contractors are confused as to what the definition of “cured” means as it has not been explained. The clause also allows for no appeals process.
He added that on one recent project the clause was removed but the ACA is going to continue to push the province to completely do away with the clause on all projects.
“We urge the government to return to the positive spirit of the Vendor Performance Management Framework,” he said. “Why run counter to all that good, collaborative effort with this approach when really, is it all that necessary?”
This is especially pertinent, Gibson explained, as the province looks to recover from COVID-19 and low oil prices.
“As we enter into economic recovery and every level of government is talking about construction as a main engine of recovery, I think owners would want to reflect on how they make themselves preferred clients,” said Gibson. “We have, by and large, a very good working relationship with Alberta Infrastructure and we value that relationship. We are confident we will be able to continue to work positively together. This is just a bump in the road, and we will get past it.”
Follow the author on Twitter @RussellReports.
Recent Comments
comments for this post are closed