Sloppy specifications and change orders How much does poor contract documentation cost Canada's construction industry? Heritage engineer John Cooke Ottawa Construction News staff writer How much does sloppy and incomplete construction documentation cost the Canadian construction indus- try? It is hard to quantitatively answer this question, some industry leaders say, but the implications are immense. “The situation isn't getting better,” Ontario General Contractors Association (OGCA) president Clive Thurston told a gathering at the national Construction Specification Canada (CSC) convention in Kitchener, On- tario in May. “On average, specifications are 70 per cent complete. Owners will not spend the money to put out 6 – Summer 2014 — The Canadian Design and Construction Report a decent set of bid documents.” John Cooke, an Ottawa-based professional engineer specializing in heritage restoration, agrees. “If you talk to anyone in the industry, especially contractors and owners, they will tell you the cost of poor specifications results in an excessive number of change orders, and this is a huge cost to the industry. “It impacts on costs, both the final costs and sched- ule – the schedule impacts contractors' ability to meet the deadlines, and the owners' ability to bring the new structure into use.” The consequence of incomplete or sloppy documen- tation on change orders is controversial.