On November 27, 2025, Bill 60, the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, received Royal Assent. Bill 60 introduces further amendments to the Construction Act, building on the changes previously introduced through Bill 216, the Building Ontario For You Act, as we discussed here.
Bill 60 makes significant changes to the rules governing holdback. Most importantly, the release of annual holdback is no longer tied to lien expiry.
Bill 216 introduced mandatory annual holdback release. Under section 26(4), an owner had to make payment to a contractor of all the accrued holdback in respect of services or materials supplied by the contractor during the year immediately preceding the anniversary, unless a lien had been preserved or perfected and not discharged, vacated, or satisfied. Notices of annual release of holdback had to be issued by owners in the prescribed form no later than 14 days after the anniversary date. Liens arising from the supply of services or materials covered by a notice of annual release of holdback would expire 60 days after the publication of that notice.
Under Bill 60, holdback must now be released no earlier than 60 days and no latter than 74 days after the notice of annual release of holdback is published. This replaces the previous requirement to release holdback 14 days after the expiry of the lien period. In other words, holdback release is now tied to the publication of the notice rather than to lien expiry.
Unlike contemplated by Bill 216, Bill 60 no longer makes the holdback notice a trigger to the lien period. Lien expiry will continue to operate as it currently does, i.e. pre-Bill 216. In other words, lien expiry remains linked to publication of a certificate of substantial performance, completion, abandonment and/or termination (for contractors) or, if it’s earlier, the date on which the person last supplies services or materials to the improvement (for subcontractors) rather than annual holdback notices.
Bill 60 also re-enacts section 30 so that it applies to the abandonment or termination of a contract or subcontract, rather than only to situations where a contractor or subcontractor defaults in the performance of a contract or subcontract.
If a contract or subcontract is abandoned or terminated, section 30 as revised prohibits the use of holdback toward obtaining services or materials in substitution for those that were to have been supplied under the contract or subcontract, and also prohibits it use in payment or satisfaction of any claim against the contractor or subcontractor, until all liens that may be claimed against that holdback have expired or been satisfied, discharged or otherwise provided for under this Act.
Finally, Bill 60 amends the transition provisions to provide that section 26 of the Act, which governs the release of the basic holdback, as it existed before the changes introduced by Bill 216, will continue to govern P3 contracts entered into before the amendments.
The amendments introduced through Bills 216 and 60, including changes to holdback requirements for designers, proper invoices, prompt payment and adjudication, as well as other housekeeping updates, will come into force on January 1, 2026. These changes will be covered in further updates and publications.