Photo by Mari Helin on Unsplash
The basis of a contract is that there is a fair exchange. Usually this is money for a service or product. When you order a coffee at your local coffee shop, there is an implied contract (that the coffee will be hot and fresh) that fairly represents the money you paid.
This is also true when hiring professional services. Fundamentally, the contract is expected to be fair to both parties. Yet that is not the case with many public entities contracting architectural services in Canada, including the City of Ottawa.
In 2012, the City released a series of supplementary conditions to standard contracts between architects and engineers and the City. Across 19 pages of dense legalese, the City redefines standard terms that have a long precedent and history in contract law. Some of these changes do little other than redefine a standard term in a longer, more complex way with little or no benefit. Other conditions raise serious questions of legality and fairness. For example, the City expects to violate federal copyright law and denies architects the right to fair decisions by the courts, setting the City up as both judge and jury of disputes.
Architects, like lawyers and doctors, carry professional liability insurance because, despite the best of intentions, sometimes mistakes happen. Insurance is there to protect the public (the client) from these rare cases where there is an error or omission.
Where the City?s contract conditions set unrealistic lev...