b'FROM OUR PRESIDENTTwo Steps Forward and One Step BackIn late May, the amended Builders Liens Act of Manitoba received royal assent, making Manitoba the fourth province to establish prompt payment legislation. This has been a long road for Manitoba, with three previous attempts timing out before they had sufficient traction to succeed. The construction community owes a huge debt of gratitude to Ministers Reg Helwer, Kelvin Goertzen, James Teitsma and their respective staff for recognizing the importance of this legislation among the many priorities of a post-pandemic government. We are over the first hurdle, but there is more work to do. Over the next few months, we are anticipating that a working group will review the regulations that provide the operational aspects of the Actthose are necessary before the legislation is proclaimed and takes effect. Additionally, the industry will have discussions as to how the adjudication process will be administered. The Saskatchewan model offers some insight into what is possible in a similarly sized marketplaceit involved the creation of a construction council to provide oversight, and an agreement with the local Alternative Dispute Resolution group for training and certification of adjudicators. Once a model is developed in Manitoba, the entity can apply to government to be designated as the Adjudication Authority for prompt payment.While we have made significant progress in one area, we have seen a giant step backwards in another. In October 2022, the government advised that Manitoba would be adopting the 2020 version of the National Building Code and the 2020 National Energy Code, skipping the 2015 code cycle entirely. This month, the government decided that it needed to undertake additional consultation prior to advancing the code cycle and is delaying adoption. Remember, Manitoba is about 10 years behind on this, and there will be some significant changesparticularly in energy efficiencyto deal with. The most troubling aspects of this are the lack of certainty and challenges around which version of the code will be used for building design, and the likelihood of a glut of projects applying for building permits at the very last moment. With all the uncertainty surrounding supply chain these days, the industry does not need additional uncertainty caused by dithering on Building Code adoption.On the brighter side, WCA events and the networking activities of our Young Construction Leaders of Manitoba and Manitoba Women in Construction groups have really ramped up and have been well attended. I think it is safe to say the pandemic concern is largely behind us, and we are looking forward to seeing our members out and about at events and gatherings over the summer months. We are looking forward to a busy construction season and an interesting fall!Stay safe this summer,Ron Hambley8 BUILD MANITOBAwinnipegconstruction.ca'