Four markets, three incompatible triggers
Every market asks the same question: is this project big enough that the regulator wants to know about it, and that somebody has to be formally in charge. Not one pair of them agrees on how to ask it.
Ontario asks whether the total cost of labour and materials exceeds $50,000. Australia asks whether the construction work is valued at $250,000 or more, five times higher.Britain does not ask about money at all: CDM 2015 uses duration and headcount, more than 30 working days with over 20 workers on site at once, or more than 500 person days. The United Stateshas no federal equivalent.
So the same house extension is notifiable in Toronto, exempt in Sydney, and judged on a completely different axis in Manchester. It is worth stating plainly because the instinct is to assume these schemes are variations of one idea with the numbers adjusted, and they are not: two of them measure money, one measures time and people, and the money ones are a factor of five apart.
Ontario says constructor
Not principal contractor. Constructor is a defined role in Ontario law and it carries the duty to file. That is not pedantry about vocabulary: somebody arriving from Britain or Australia and searching for principal contractor obligations in Ontario finds the wrong framework and concludes the duty does not exist.
It is the same reason a safe work method statement is not a method statement and a Notice of Project is not an F10. Where the word is different, the instrument is usually different too, and the word is the thing you have to get right before anything else you look up is worth reading.
It goes on the wall
A signed copy of the completed notice, whether it was filed online or on paper, has to be posted in a conspicuous place at the project or be available there for review by an inspector.
This has no equivalent in the other two markets. A CDM construction phase plan lives in a folder. An Australian WHS management plan has to be available to workers and they have to be told of their right to inspect it, which is a right of access rather than a display duty. Ontario is the one that wants the paper visible.
Which makes it the easiest thing in the whole scheme for an inspector to notice, and the one with no habit behind it for anybody who learned this trade somewhere else. Filed but not posted is a real and common state.
Fourteen days changes the method, not the duty
Where the constructor believes the work will not take more than fourteen days, the information can be given to an inspector at the nearest Ministry office by fax or telephone rather than by filing the form. The notice is still required and it is still required before work begins. What changes is how it gets there, which is a sensible accommodation for a short job and is routinely misread as an exemption for one.
The automobile plants, twice
Projects confined to an automobile manufacturing or assembly factory use $250,000 rather than $50,000. On its own that is a quirk worth knowing if you work in one.
What makes it worth a paragraph is that the same industry appears again in the Ontario working at heights rules, where workers directly employed by an automobile manufacturer or assembler are exempt from the training requirement. Two carve-outs for one industry inside one regime is a pattern rather than a coincidence, and the practical consequence is simple: if you are working inside one of those plants, check whether a duty treats them differently before assuming the general rule applies.
Cost is not the whole of section 6
The money test catches most projects, which is why it is the one this tool checks. Section 6 of O. Reg. 213/91 contains further circumstances that require a notice regardless of what the job costs, and the Ontario page that sets out the filing duty does not reproduce them.
So a cheap job can still be notifiable, and this page will tell you the cost trigger is not met rather than that you are in the clear. Read the section before concluding a project sits outside it.
It does not file anything for you
It works out whether the cost trigger applies and reminds you of the two duties attached, filing and posting. It does not file anything: the form goes to the Ministry through the Ontario government website or on paper from Publications Ontario. And it is Ontario law only. Every Canadian province runs its own occupational health and safety regime, so nothing here travels to British Columbia or Alberta any more than it travels to Sydney.
Common questions
When do I need a Notice of Project in Ontario?
When the total cost of labour and materials for the project is expected to exceed $50,000. The constructor files it with the Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development before construction begins. For a project confined to an automobile manufacturing or assembly factory the figure is $250,000 instead. Section 6 of O. Reg. 213/91 also contains other circumstances that require a notice regardless of cost, so a cheap job is not automatically outside it.
Is $50,000 the same as the Australian $250,000?
No, and the difference is one of the clearest examples of why a rule of thumb does not travel. Ontario triggers at $50,000 of labour and materials. Australia triggers at $250,000 of construction work, five times higher. Britain does not use money at all: CDM 2015 asks whether the work lasts longer than 30 working days with more than 20 workers on site at once, or exceeds 500 person days. The United States has no federal equivalent. The same house extension can be notifiable in Toronto, exempt in Sydney and assessed on an entirely different axis in Manchester.
Who files it, the principal contractor?
The constructor, and the word matters. Constructor is a defined role in Ontario law and it is not a translation of principal contractor. Searching for principal contractor duties in Ontario finds the wrong framework, in the same way that looking for a method statement in Australia finds nothing while a SWMS finds everything. The instrument is named differently because it is defined differently.
Does it have to go on the wall?
Yes. A signed copy of the completed form, whether filed online or on paper, must be posted in a conspicuous place at the project or be available there for review by an inspector. It is the duty most easily missed by anybody trained elsewhere. Neither the British construction phase plan nor the Australian WHS management plan is a display document, so there is no habit to carry over. It is also the easiest thing in the entire scheme for an inspector to check from the gate.
The job is only ten days. Do I still need one?
Yes, but there is a lighter way to give it. Where the constructor believes the work at the project will not take more than 14 days, the information can be given to an inspector at the nearest Ministry office by fax or by telephone rather than by filing the form. That is a change of method, not an exemption: the notice is still required and it is still required before work begins.
Why do automobile plants get a different figure?
The regulation sets $250,000 rather than $50,000 for projects confined to an automobile manufacturing or assembly factory. What is worth noticing is that this is the second time that industry gets a special case in Ontario construction rules: it is also the exemption from working at heights training. One carve-out is a quirk. Two in the same regime is a pattern, and it is worth checking whether any other duty treats those plants differently before assuming a rule applies inside one.
Is the cost trigger the only thing that requires a notice?
No. Section 6 of O. Reg. 213/91 lists several circumstances and cost is only one of them, though it is the one that catches most projects. This tool checks the money test and says so rather than implying it is the whole section. Read the section itself before concluding a project is outside the requirement.