Important Changes Will Require Attention and Adjustments

CCDC 2-2020 and CCDC Division 01 have been officially released. The Canadian Construction Documents Committee (CCDC) has taken over responsibility for Divisions 00 and 01 of the specifications, while Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) focuses on the technical divisions. This has resulted in significant changes to the General Conditions of the contract.

OAA members are advised to get copies of CCDC 2-2020 and Division 01 for review. In-house and client-generated Division 01s will need to be updated to include provisions that were in CCDC 2-2008, but have been removed from CCDC 2-2020.

The OAA does not know if, when, or how the developers of commercially available master specs will respond to these changes.

The OAA and the OGCA are again jointly developing recommended supplementary conditions for the new CCDC 2 contract. There will be an announcement once they have been approved.

While it is understandable that clarity is being sought by keeping the contract focused on what is required by moving any process (how) requirements to Division 01, it will require effort from all involved to make the transition. During the transition, practices will need to maintain two versions of their supplementary conditions, front-end specifications, and technical specs to the extent that the technical sections refer back to specific sections in Division 01.

These changes, along with the decoupling of contract milestones such as the start of warranties from lien legislation through the introduction of the concept of “ready-for-takeover,” will require adjustments by all parties, and will also require changes to the specification sections.

CCDC online training on the new CCDC 2 and Division 01 has been completed. Registered participants should have received an email from CCDC with a link to download their copy of the official documents. You have until the end of January to complete the download before the link expires.

CCDC will continue to sell the copyright seals supporting the use of CCDC 2-2008 until the end of 2021. However, use of the new 2020 edition is encouraged, and CCDC will exchange any 2008 seals for their 2020 equivalents through their regular document outlets.