CCDC 14 & 15 (2026): design-build updates

For thirteen years, Canadian owners who wanted one firm to design and build used CCDC 14-2013 and its consultant companion, CCDC 15-2013, and patched them with Supplementary Conditions to catch up with CCDC 2-2020 and prompt payment law. In spring 2026, CCDC released new editions of both. This lesson covers what the 2026 forms change, what is still unclear from public sources, and what an owner should check before using them.

Learning outcomes

• Describe how CCDC 14-2026 and CCDC 15-2026 fit together in a traditional design-build project.
• Explain the new Effective Date, Contract Time and Ready-for-Takeover provisions in CCDC 14-2026.
• Apply the new rules on owner's consultants, owner-provided design and Instruments of Service to an owner's decisions.
• Identify which parts of the 2026 forms have been publicly summarized and which need a careful read of the form itself.

The lesson

Two forms, one design-build chain

CCDC describes CCDC 14-2026 as a standard traditional design-build prime contract between an Owner and a Design-Builder, in which the design-builder provides design services and construction under one agreement for a single stipulated price. CCDC 15-2026 is the downstream contract between the design-builder and its consultant; its title changed from "Design Services Contract" in 2013 to "Service Contract" in 2026. Osler, in a July 2026 post, calls these the first design-build updates since 2013, released alongside two new progressive design-build forms, CCDC 32 and CCDC 33, which lesson 17 covers. Osler also notes the 2013 forms remain available.

Osler lists the drivers: prompt payment and adjudication legislation in several provinces, higher expected insurance amounts, and newer concepts such as Ready-for-Takeover and early occupancy that arrived with CCDC 2-2020 and the 2025 construction management forms.

Effective Date, Contract Time and Ready-for-Takeover

Fasken describes three linked changes in CCDC 14-2026. A new defined Effective Date, recorded in the Articles of Agreement, is the starting point for services, payment and milestones. Contract Time now runs from the Effective Date to the stipulated Ready-for-Takeover date. And Ready-for-Takeover itself, in GC 12.1, is a condition-based milestone that is reached only when the GC 12.1.1 conditions are met and the Payment Certifier confirms it.

Osler lists some of those conditions: substantial performance certified by the payment certifier, final cleaning and waste removal, and delivery of operations and maintenance documents to the owner. The pattern follows CCDC 2-2020, which lesson 7 explains in detail. Substantial Performance still drives lien periods and holdback release; the warranty start and the cut-off for waiver of claims move to Ready-for-Takeover.

Starting Contract Time at the Effective Date matters more in design-build than in a build-only contract. The design period, the permit and procurement now all sit inside the design-builder's time. A late permit caused by an incomplete design submission is the design-builder's delay, not an owner's risk event, unless the contract says otherwise.

Owner's consultants and owner-provided design

Owners often keep some design in their own hands: a process layout, a specialist system or a racking design. The 2013 form said little about that. Fasken reports that GC 2.6 of the 2026 form lets the owner engage its own consultants or provide design itself, and requires the design-builder to coordinate its design with owner-provided design and to identify and address deficiencies in it. Clark Wilson adds that GC 2.6.2 and 2.6.3 require the owner to coordinate those consultants with the design-builder and to make their contracts compatible.

The duty runs both ways. The design-builder must catch problems in the owner's design, but the owner must deliver that design on time and make its consultants work with the design-builder. An owner that adds its own consultants should give them a schedule, a scope that matches GC 2.6 and a duty to respond to the design-builder's coordination comments.

Instruments of Service: who owns the design

Both 2026 forms add a defined term, Instruments of Service, for the drawings, models, specifications and other design deliverables. Clark Wilson summarizes the effect in CCDC 14 (GC 1.1.9 to 1.1.11): copyright stays with whoever prepared the documents; the owner may keep copies for use and occupancy of the project only; and if the owner modifies them, it indemnifies the design-builder for resulting claims and costs. In CCDC 15 (GC 5.2.1 and 5.2.3), the consultant owns its Instruments of Service, and the owner and design-builder receive a non-exclusive licence to use them for the project once the consultant's fees and reimbursable expenses are paid.

Insurance deductibles and liability

Fasken reports a new rule in GC 11.1.3: a deductible is shared between the parties in proportion to their responsibility for the loss, subject to the rest of the contract, and where the responsible party is not bound by the contract, the owner bears it. Commentators also say limitation of liability was substantially revised in both forms, with caps on insurable and uninsurable risks, but the public summaries do not give the amounts. Read Article A-1 and the liability GCs of the form you are signing before you rely on any number.

What is not yet clear from public sources

Osler names prompt payment and adjudication as reasons for the update but does not describe the new payment mechanics, and none of the summaries BRC reviewed says whether CCDC 14-2026 adds an owner's right to terminate for convenience like the 2025 construction management forms. CCDC's guide to CCDC 14 and 15, CCDC 44, is still the 2016 edition. Until a 2026 guide or fuller commentary appears, treat these points as things to confirm in the form, not assume.

Northgate worked example

Northgate Distribution Centre (fictional) is a 12,000 m² tilt-up warehouse in Vaughan for Northgate Logistics Inc. (fictional), procured in fact as design-bid-build under CCDC 2-2020 with Ridgeline Architects Inc. (fictional) as the owner's consultant; see the Northgate fact sheet.

Contract Time now carries the design

Figure 3 shows the effect of the Effective Date. Under the real CCDC 2-2020 contract, Ridgeline's design was finished before tender, and Halvorsen's time covered construction. Under a CCDC 14-2026 version, the 368 calendar days from January 11, 2027 to January 14, 2028 cover design completion, the permit, procurement and construction. If the permit (M2, February 26, 2027) slips because the design-builder's drawings were incomplete, the delay is inside the design-builder's Contract Time.

The racking interface

The 9.75 m clear height and ESFR sprinklers depend on the racking layout, because the sprinkler design must suit the storage arrangement. If Northgate Logistics provides the layout through its own consultant, GC 2.6 makes the design-builder coordinate with it and flag deficiencies, and makes the owner coordinate its consultant and keep that contract compatible. The owner's representative should put the layout delivery date in the master schedule as an owner's activity driving the sprinkler design, because a late layout is now the owner's delay.

Using the drawings later

Suppose Northgate Logistics plans a future expansion. Under the 2026 forms it may keep the Instruments of Service for use and occupancy of this building, but reusing them for an expansion, or altering them, needs a licence and, if the owner modifies them, carries an indemnity to the design-builder. If expansion is likely, negotiate the licence now, while the owner still has leverage.

Owner's move

• Use the 2026 forms on new design-build projects. They align with CCDC 2-2020 and the 2025 CM forms, so fewer Supplementary Conditions are needed to catch up.
• Write a tight Statement of Requirements. In design-build, it is the owner's main scope document; gaps become the design-builder's choice.
• Schedule owner-provided design. Under GC 2.6, owner design has dates and coordination duties; put them in the master schedule.
• Negotiate design reuse up front. Expansion, replication and modification rights belong in the contract, not in a later negotiation.
• Read the payment, liability and termination clauses yourself. Public summaries do not cover them in detail yet.

Common mistakes

1. Treating 2013 Supplementary Conditions as plug-and-play. Many of them patched gaps the 2026 forms now fill differently.
2. Measuring delay from construction start. Contract Time runs from the Effective Date and includes design.
3. Keeping owner design informal. Unscheduled owner design is the easiest delay claim a design-builder has.
4. Assuming the owner owns the drawings. It receives a project-limited right to use them.
5. Relying on commentary for numbers. Caps, payment periods and notice periods must be read from the form.

Quick quiz

1. Under CCDC 14-2026, as Fasken describes it, Contract Time runs from:

   1. The permit to Substantial Performance
   2. The Effective Date to Ready-for-Takeover
   3. Mobilization to final completion
   4. Tender close to occupancy

2. Who confirms Ready-for-Takeover under CCDC 14-2026?

   1. The owner's lender
   2. The municipality
   3. The Payment Certifier
   4. The design-builder alone

3. Under GC 2.6, if the owner provides part of the design, the design-builder must:

   1. Ignore it
   2. Redesign it at its own cost
   3. Coordinate with it and identify and address deficiencies
   4. Take ownership of it

4. Under CCDC 15-2026, when do the owner and design-builder receive their licence to use the consultant's Instruments of Service?

   1. At contract signing
   2. Once the consultant's fees and reimbursable expenses are paid
   3. At Ready-for-Takeover
   4. Never; the consultant keeps all rights

5. Which statement is true of the CCDC 14-2026 milestones?

   1. Substantial Performance no longer matters
   2. Substantial Performance still drives liens and holdback; warranty starts at Ready-for-Takeover
   3. Warranty starts at the Effective Date
   4. Ready-for-Takeover replaces the Construction Act test

Key terms

Design-builder

The single firm that provides both design and construction to the owner under CCDC 14.

Statement of Requirements

The owner's document setting out what the project must achieve; the design-builder designs to it.

Effective Date

Under CCDC 14-2026, the contract date recorded in the Articles of Agreement, from which Contract Time runs.

Instruments of Service

The drawings, models, specifications and other design deliverables, owned by whoever prepared them.

Owner-provided design

Design the owner supplies itself or through its own consultants, governed by GC 2.6.

Ready-for-Takeover

The contract completion milestone, reached when listed conditions are met and confirmed by the Payment Certifier.

References

1. CCDC, CCDC 14-2026 Design-Build Stipulated Price Contract (document page).
2. CCDC, Documents (list including CCDC 15-2026 and CCDC 44-2016).
3. Osler, CCDC releases 2026 documents for design-build and progressive design-build contracting (July 2026).
4. Fasken, Redefining design-build: key updates in CCDC 14-2026 and the launch of CCDC 32-2026 (June 2026).
5. Clark Wilson LLP, Key updates to CCDC design-build suite: CCDC 14, 15, 32 and 33 (2026) (June 2026).

Verified on November 6, 2026.