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www.canadianlawyermag.com 35 tion is often a cause for concern, Smith adds. Finding the ideal risk-sharing model is a significant issue for construction companies. At PCL, Wallace and his team have public and private clients prepared to have mean- ingful conversations about risk transfer. He says that when such discussions do not occur, the project may fail as costs may exceed the available budget. "Not to say that all risk should be pushed away from contractors because, in some cases, contractors are the best parties to manage a particular risk, but that question needs to be asked on a case-by-case basis," says Wallace. PCL's legal department assists the teams with existing projects and administering current contract models, and also helps with new pursuits. "Presumably, we're getting smarter as we continue to manage these volatile periods by trying to tweak models to find the best risk allocation that suits our clients, subcontra- tors and supply chains," says Wallace. Supply chain challenges and economic restraints continue to disrupt the industry in the aftermath of the pandemic. Chris Moran, general counsel at Maple Reinders Group, is watching project development with caution as he is concerned about the impact of supply chain constraints. "We are concerned with projects being cancelled or pushed back as well as poten- tially some of our subtrade partners having economic restraints or issues that might cause us problems with the operation," says Moran. Vernita Tsang, general counsel and chief compliance officer at Fengate Asset Management – an investor in infrastruc- ture assets – notes that in the fundraising space, attracting global investors is a growing challenge. "We're seeing infrastructure investors hesitant to commit new funds in this current market," says Tsang. The rise of ESG is top of mind for the legal department at Fengate as it aims to develop and implement a robust five-year plan. "To attract international capital – particu- larly European – having an ESG strategy and committing to and abiding by certain inter- national standards of ESG with reporting, tracking and monitoring is just table stakes now," says Tsang. Smith focuses on protecting the integ- rity of public procurement processes for her public sector clients and supporting them to deliver their projects as quickly as possible. She hopes to see continued investment in public infrastructure and legislative regimes that encourage further development. "Anything that makes approval processes or other regulatory processes more efficient in the infrastructure space is positive for everyone, including the public sector entities trying to get their projects built," says Smith. She notes that the pandemic also highlighted the impor- tance of force majeure clauses in contracts, so clients are taking greater care to ensure they are protected from events outside their control. Tsang would like to see governments take more of a leadership role in solving the infrastructure deficit in northern and remote Canada and stimulating expansion in those areas. Wallace is optimistic about the future of Canada's construction industry as the coun- try's open immigration policy continues to fuel economic growth. He predicts that the green energy transition will create many opportunities for the construction industry as we transform how we generate and use energy, live and work, and rely on transpor- tation networks. "Presumably, we're getting smarter as we continue to manage these volatile periods by trying to tweak models to find the best risk allocation that suits our clients, subcontractors and supply chains" Andrew Wallace, PCL Construction Inc.