Ontario’s Bill 140 proposes changes affecting infrastructure and construction sectors

On October 27, 2026, the Ontario government introduced Bill 140, the proposed Building Ontario Faster Act, 2026 (the “Bill”). The Bill proposes to amend 25 Acts and enact two new Acts. It passed its second reading on November 2, 2026.

In this post, we consider legislative changes contained in the Bill that are of particular interest to the infrastructure and construction sectors: enactment of the Building Highway 69 Faster Act, 2026, as well as amendments to the Construction Act, the Metrolinx Act, 2006, the Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011 and the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act.

Together, these changes have implications for how public owners deliver projects, how contractors and subcontractors manage cash flow, and how utilities and landowners interact with provincial infrastructure programs.

What does Bill 140 mean for Ontario’s infrastructure and construction sectors?

• The Highway 69 Expansion Project is being fast-tracked with dedicated legislation. The project would be exempt from many aspects of the Environmental Assessment Act, and specified early works could proceed before a streamlined assessment is complete.
• Prescribed owners could release construction holdbacks on an annual date other than the contract anniversary. This could shift when contractors and subcontractors receive holdbacks.
• The Minister of Transportation is taking over GTHA transit planning. Metrolinx would be guided by the plan in all its decisions and actions.
• The province is taking action to mitigate the risks to major projects posed by underground utilities. Management of underground utilities has been a source of delay and cost overruns. Utility owners could now be ordered to share data with the province, and non-compliance could attract administrative penalties.
• Roadside permitting along provincial highways would be overhauled. Designated projects and works can proceed without permits, potentially reducing delay risk.

Enactment of the Building Highway 69 Faster Act, 2026

Schedule 4 would enact the Building Highway 69 Faster Act, 2026 for a specified 68-kilometre realignment and expansion of Highway 69 in the Parry Sound and Sudbury areas. If enacted, the new Act would exempt the project from the Environmental Assessment Act, subject to prescribed exceptions, and provide that Part II of the Environmental Bill of Rights, 1993 would not apply to proposals to issue, amend or revoke instruments for or related to the project. Instead, the project would be subject to a new statutory project assessment process that is outlined in sections 7–14 of the new Act.

The new Act would also allow certain activities to proceed before the project assessment is complete, including procurement and contracting; obtaining permits, licences and approvals; and specified land transactions and land preparation, such as acquiring or disposing of interests in land and preparing land for disposition or a transfer of administration and control.

The early works listed in the new Act include site-specific clearing, construction access roads and the Still River Bridges. The project would also become a priority highway project under the Building Highways Faster Act, 2024.

Amendments to the Construction Act

Schedule 5 of the Bill amends the existing annual holdback regime under the Construction Act. The changes follow the province’s previous amendments to the Act’s holdback regime under the Fighting Delays, Building Faster Act, 2025, which we covered here. The amendments would allow prescribed owners to specify an annual date for holdback payments in the contract instead of using the contract anniversary date.

The Bill does not identify which owners would be eligible to use this flexibility; eligible owners would instead be prescribed by regulation. For existing contracts entered before the regulation prescribing the owner takes effect, a prescribed owner could instead fix a date by publishing notice.

For prescribed owners, a common date could simplify administration across a portfolio; however, this could affect contract-anniversary-based cash-flow assumptions for contractors and subcontractors.

A replacement subsection 87.4(4) of the Construction Act would clarify that for contracts entered into before January 1, 2026, the annual holdback provisions would first apply at the second contract anniversary following January 1, 2026. Any payment required for that anniversary would include all holdback accrued before it. These rules would apply regardless of other contracts or subcontracts for the improvement entered into on or after January 1, 2026.

The Bill would also create a transition rule for contracts entered into between January 1, 2026, and the date these amendments come into force. If an owner fixes an annual date for those contracts under subsection 26(11), and the regulations also name that owner for this transition rule, the current holdback rules in section 26 would not apply to those contracts until the fixed date first arrives. Until then, the former holdback rules in section 26.1 would continue to apply, even though that section has been repealed.

In addition, the Bill would expand the Minister’s regulation-making authority under the Construction Act. Regulations could address private adjudicators and the fees payable to them, and could prescribe which owners may use the new annual date rules, govern how notices fixing an annual date are published and set related transitional rules.

Amendments to the Metrolinx Act, 2006

Schedule 14 of the Bill would amend the Metrolinx Act, 2006 to shift responsibility for the regional transportation plan from Metrolinx to the Minister of Transportation. A new section 6.1 would require the Minister to make the plan, set out requirements for its contents and allow the Minister to review and amend it. Metrolinx would be guided by the plan in all its decisions and actions.

Amendments to the Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011

As anyone engaged in the delivery of major infrastructure projects that require underground works will know, the identification and relocation of underground utilities have long been a source of project delay and additional cost.

Schedule 15 of the Bill seeks to expedite the process of addressing the impact of underground utilities on major provincial infrastructure projects. It would amend the Ministry of Infrastructure Act, 2011 to allow the Minister of Infrastructure to order any owner or operator to supply specified information about its underground infrastructure by a deadline specified in the order.

Permitted uses of the information about underground infrastructure would be limited to planning, delivering and operating major public infrastructure projects (including priority transit projects and other prescribed priority infrastructure projects). The proposed amendments would also deem certain supplied or revealing information exempt under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

The amendments would provide for administrative penalties of up to $500,000 to be imposed for failing to provide the required information to the Minister of Infrastructure.

Amendments to the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act

Schedule 20 of the Bill would amend the Public Transportation and Highway Improvement Act to repeal and replace the roadside control provisions for King’s Highways and controlled-access highways, which specify the activities on or near those highways that require a permit from the Minister of Transportation.

Examples of such activities include the erection of buildings, the planting of trees, the display of signs, the use of land that causes persons to congregate in large numbers, the construction of private roads and entranceways and, in the case of controlled-access highways, the erection of power transmission lines.

The amendments would authorize the Minister, through the promulgation of regulations, to designate certain activities as “prescribed activities”. A permit would not be required for a prescribed activity; instead, the person undertaking it would be required to provide notice and comply with the applicable requirements or standards. The use of this authority could reduce permitting delays for prescribed activities.

Next steps and commenting opportunities

The Bill has completed first and second readings and has been referred to the Standing Committee on the Interior.

The province is currently accepting comments on certain changes proposed in Bill 140 via the Ontario Regulatory Registry (the “ORR”). Where applicable, the province is also accepting comments on certain proposed changes via the Environmental Registry of Ontario (the “ERO”). A list of the ERO notices related to the Bill can be found here. The specific ERO notice for the Building Highway 69 Faster Act, 2026 can be found here.

Comments are being accepted on the ORR and ERO until November 26, 2026.

If you have any questions about Bill 140, please do not hesitate to reach out to our Procurement team.