October 7, 2026 · Updated October 20, 2026

CCDC 5A vs 5B: The 2025 Construction Management Contracts

The difference between CCDC 5A and 5B is who holds the trade contracts. Under CCDC 5A, the construction manager is your advisor and agent, paid a fee for services, and you sign a separate contract with every trade. Under CCDC 5B, the construction manager advises you during design and then builds the project itself, holding the trade contracts as its own subcontracts and charging you the cost of the work plus a fee, with options to convert to a guaranteed maximum price or a stipulated price later. So the CCDC 5A vs 5B choice is mostly about how much of the contracting, the paperwork and the price risk you want to keep in your own name.

Both forms were reissued by the Canadian Construction Documents Committee on June 30, 2025 (BLG, July 2025), replacing the 2010 editions. This article covers what each contract does, how they compare side by side, what the 2025 editions changed, how cost control works under each, what Ontario’s Construction Act means for holdback and liens, and how to decide. It’s written for the owner or developer weighing a construction manager’s proposal, not for lawyers, and it isn’t legal advice. A construction lawyer should review whichever form you sign.

What CCDC 5A and CCDC 5B are

Construction management is a way of buying a building in which a builder joins the team during design, rather than pricing a finished set of drawings. The construction manager (CM) advises on cost, schedule and how the building will actually go together, breaks the work into trade packages, and tenders those packages as the design reaches each one. That lets the site start before every drawing is done. The two CCDC forms split on what happens once the packages are let.

CCDC 5A: construction management for services

CCDC 5A – 2025 is a contract between you and a construction manager “for which the Work is to be performed by Trade Contractors.” The CM acts as your agent in a limited capacity. It provides advice during design, runs the trade tenders, manages the trade contracts on your behalf, coordinates the site and is paid a fee for doing so. You sign each trade contract yourself, normally on CCDC 17, the stipulated price contract for trade contractors on construction management projects. The Ontario Association of Architects’ 2026 practice tip on CM contracts puts it plainly: the CM “has no direct contractual relationship with the trade contractors and is not directly responsible for the trade contractors’ performance.” This model is also called “CM as agent” or “CM not at risk.”

CCDC 5B: construction management for services and construction

CCDC 5B – 2025 is a contract between you and a construction manager “to provide advisory services during the pre-construction phase and perform the required Work during the construction phase.” The CM advises during design, then hires the trades as its own subcontractors, often on the CCA 1 stipulated price subcontract. During construction it looks much like a general contractor: one party on site, holding the trades. You pay the actual cost of the work plus a fee, and the parties can later elect a guaranteed maximum price (GMP), a GMP with shared savings, or conversion to a stipulated price. This is the model people call “CM at risk.”

CCDC 5A vs 5B side by side

Sources for the table: CCDC’s own descriptions of 5A and 5B, the OAA practice tip (May 2026), and Cassels’ summary of CCDC 5B – 2025 (September 2025).

Two things in that table catch owners out. First, neither form moves the price risk off you by itself. A CM at risk carries the risk of building what it contracts to build, but until a GMP or stipulated price is agreed, you’re paying actual cost. Second, CCDC 5A gives you the most control and the most work. A project with twenty trade packages is twenty contracts in your name, each with its own invoices, holdback and closeout.

Whether you need a construction manager at all, or an owner’s rep alongside one, is covered in owner’s rep vs construction manager.

What changed in the 2025 editions

CCDC 5A, 5B and 17 were last updated in 2010. The 2025 editions were released on June 30, 2025 (BLG, July 2025). The OAA’s May 2026 practice tip encourages a quick move to the 2025 forms, though CCDC still lists the 2010 editions for sale, so check which one you’ve been handed. If a proposal in front of you is still on the 2010 form, ask why.

Changes to both 5A and 5B

• Ready-for-Takeover. The milestone CCDC 2 introduced in 2020 now applies to construction management. It needs the project ready for its intended use, occupancy permits and regulatory requirements met, final cleaning done, operations and maintenance documents and as-builts delivered, and demonstration and training arranged. Contract Time now runs to Ready-for-Takeover (BLG).
• Early occupancy. You can occupy all or part of the project before Ready-for-Takeover, with the agreement of the parties affected and the approval of the authorities. Portions you occupy early are treated as having reached Ready-for-Takeover, which affects warranty and insurance (Clark Wilson, August 2025).
• Payment. The payment period moved from 20 days to 28 calendar days after receipt of a proper invoice, in line with prompt payment legislation in Ontario and other provinces (BLG).
• Holdback released progressively. The CM can request, and you’re obliged to release, holdback progressively, and this now applies to all the work, including the CM’s own, not only subcontractors and suppliers (Clark Wilson).
• Construction Budget and Construction Cost. The forms separate the Construction Budget, the cost you’re prepared to incur, from the Construction Cost, the total cost to build excluding the CM’s fees (Gowling WLG, July 2025).
• Termination for convenience. You can suspend or end the contract without the CM being at fault, with set entitlements for the CM (Clark Wilson).
• Limitation of liability. New caps on uninsured losses, a mutual waiver of consequential damages, and exclusions for fraud and criminal acts (BLG).
• Cash allowances removed from 5A and 5B, and adjudication under provincial legislation is now expressly recognized (BLG).

Changes specific to 5B

• Pre-construction is now its own contract stage. Pre-construction Services have their own scope, fee model (fixed or time-based, per Gowling), invoicing and administration. The Consultant doesn’t certify pre-construction payments, and reimbursable expenses now apply only to that stage (WeirFoulds, December 2025).
• A break fee. If you end the contract during pre-construction, the CM receives a break fee set in advance as a percentage of the most recent Class A, B, C or D Construction Cost Estimate (BLG).
• GMP and stipulated price in appendices. The three pricing options moved to separate appendices: stipulated price conversion, GMP, and GMP with shared savings (Cassels). Electing one is formalized by Change Order (Gowling).
• Execution plan. You can ask the CM for an execution plan covering its methods, how it’ll procure the subcontracts, any work by its own forces, and anticipated cash flow (Cassels).
• Audit rights extended. You can review the CM’s cost records for one year after final completion, up from 60 days (WeirFoulds).
• Liability tied to the Contract Price. The cap is the greater of the Contract Price or $2 million, to a maximum of $20 million, and the Contract Price now includes the CM’s fees, expenses and the Cost of the Work (BLG).
• Subcontractor default counts as a delay outside the CM’s control (BLG).

Changes specific to 5A and CCDC 17

CCDC 5A lets the parties split the Fee for Services across pre-construction, construction and post-construction, which is less detailed than 5B’s separation. The CM can now end the contract if you become insolvent or the project is suspended for more than 30 days through no fault of its own. The 5A liability cap is the greater of the Fee for Services or $2 million, up to $20 million. CCDC 17 clarifies what the CM and the Consultant each do in relation to the trade contractors, and adds its own cap: the greater of the trade’s Contract Price or $2 million, up to $20 million (BLG). What it takes to run a dozen of these trade contracts at once is covered in CCDC 17 trade contracts for owners.

How cost control works under each

Construction management gives you more visibility into cost than a lump sum does, and less certainty early on.

Pre-construction and the Construction Budget

Both forms let the CM’s services include preparing or confirming the Construction Cost Estimate at each design phase and recommending corrective action when it exceeds the Construction Budget (OAA, 2026). That’s the most valuable thing a CM does for an owner, and it’s worth making sure the services schedule actually includes it. The estimates move from Class D at concept to Class A on complete documents, and each one is a decision point: hold the scope, change the design, or move the budget. What a good estimate shows, and what to ask when one lands on your desk, is in reading a construction estimate.

Trade tendering

Under both forms, the CM prepares trade packages with you and the design team and tenders them as the drawings for each one are ready. Excavation and structure can be let while interiors are still being designed. Each tender is a check on the estimate, and the gap between them tells you early whether the budget is holding.

Under 5A, each award is a contract you sign. Under 5B, the CM awards the subcontracts, and the 2025 form requires your approval of each one and a schedule of values updated as packages are awarded until the job is fully bought out (Cassels). Either way, ask to see the bid results for each package, not just the recommended award.

The CM’s fee and site costs

Under 5B, the Cost of the Work covers labour, products, construction equipment, temporary work and approved subcontracts, among other costs. Site staff, temporary facilities and general requirements can run to a large number on a long project, so settle before signing which of them are reimbursable as cost and which are covered by the fee. Under 5A, the same items either sit in the CM’s fee, are bought by you directly, or are let as their own trade package.

Contingency

Under 5A, every contingency is yours: design contingency while drawings develop, and construction contingency for what the trade contracts don’t cover. Under 5B, before any GMP, the same is true in practice, because you’re paying actual cost. The standard appendices leave the GMP’s make-up for the parties to settle. One way to structure it, described by Langlois (April 2026), is to add a contingency to the Class A estimate and set the CM’s fee as a fixed amount, part or all of it at risk, with savings shared in proportion to the fee at risk. Ask what the contingency inside a GMP covers, who can draw on it, and where unspent amounts go. How much to carry at each stage is covered in how much contingency is enough.

GMP or stipulated price under 5B

The three 5B options give you a way to buy price certainty once the design is far enough along:

1. Guaranteed Maximum Price. The CM commits to a ceiling. Costs above it are the CM’s, subject to changes you make.
2. GMP plus a share of savings. As above, with savings below the GMP split between you and the CM.
3. Conversion to a stipulated price. The contract becomes, in effect, a lump sum, similar to CCDC 2.

The timing matters more than the choice. A GMP set on Class C documents will carry a large contingency, because the CM is pricing what hasn’t been drawn yet. A GMP set on Class A documents, with most packages tendered, is a price you can compare. Ask the CM to show how its proposed GMP reconciles to the estimate and the tenders received, line by line.

Holdback, liens and the Construction Act

Ontario’s Construction Act applies to both forms, and where a contract and the Act disagree, the Act wins. The two forms put you in quite different positions under it.

Who the “contractor” is

The Act defines a contractor as a person contracting with or employed directly by “the owner or an agent of the owner” to supply services or materials to an improvement (s. 1(1)). Under 5A, each trade contracts with you directly, so each one is a contractor in its own right and you are its payer. The CM, supplying services to the improvement under its own contract with you, is generally a contractor too. Under 5B, the CM is your one contractor and the trades are its subcontractors.

Holdback under each form

Every payer has to retain 10% of the value of services and materials supplied under each contract as holdback (s. 22). In practice:

• Under 5A, you keep a separate holdback on every CCDC 17 trade contract and on the CM’s contract. Each trade contract reaches substantial performance on its own, so the OAA notes the Consultant may be asked to prepare certificates of substantial performance for many separate trade contracts. Each one starts its own lien period: liens expire 60 days after that contract’s certificate is published, or after completion if that comes first (s. 31).
• Under 5B, you keep one holdback on the CM’s contract, and the CM keeps holdback on each subcontract. The lien periods run on the one contract between you and the CM, so the final holdback comes due at the end of the job, though the 2025 form provides for progressive release as parts of the work are certified.

Prompt payment and annual release

Both forms now align with the Act’s prompt payment rules: proper invoices, payment within 28 days of receipt (s. 6.4(1)), and a notice of non-payment within 14 days if you dispute any amount (s. 6.4(2)). Since January 1, 2026, an invoice missing information is deemed proper unless you flag it within seven days (s. 6.1(2)), and annual release of holdback is mandatory on each contract anniversary (s. 26).

Under 5B that’s one invoice a month. Under 5A it’s one from every active trade plus the CM, each running its own 7, 14 and 28-day clocks and its own anniversary. The CM certifies trade payments under CCDC 17, but you’re still the payer, and the deadlines are yours. An owner choosing 5A needs a payment process that can handle that volume before the first invoices arrive. The full payment and holdback cycle, step by step, is set out in our CCDC 2 guide.

The constructor question

This one falls under Ontario’s Occupational Health and Safety Act. The Province’s constructor guideline says that if an owner contracts with more than one contractor and no one has agreed to take on the constructor role, the owner will likely be deemed the constructor. Under 5A you contract with every trade, so unless the contract hands the role to the CM, and the CM actually controls the site, the constructor is likely you. The OAA recommends doing that through supplementary conditions, and amending the CCDC 17 trade contracts to match. Under 5B, the CM holds the trades and is usually the constructor.

Which one fits your project

When to stay with CCDC 2 instead

Construction management isn’t always the better route. CCDC 2, the stipulated price contract, is still one of the most commonly used standard forms in Canada, and on many projects it’s the right one. It suits you when:

• The design can be finished before you need to start. A complete set of documents is what a fixed price needs, and if the schedule allows for it, you get price certainty from day one.
• You want competition on the whole job. CCDC 2 tenders the entire project to several general contractors. Construction management tenders the trades, but the CM itself is usually selected earlier, on fee and qualifications.
• You don’t have the people to manage cost-plus records or many trade contracts. CCDC 2 asks the least of an owner’s own team. What reviewing cost-plus records involves is set out in how a cost-plus contract works.

Construction management earns its fee when the schedule has to overlap design and construction, when the building is complex enough that constructability advice during design saves real money, or when the project is large enough that packaging the trades gives you better pricing and control. The trade-off is that you buy the CM’s advice early and the price certainty late. More on the timing side of that decision is in the real cost of skipping preconstruction. If you’d rather have one firm design and build at a fixed price, CCDC 14 for design-build covers that contract and its 2026 edition. How all of these methods compare, from design-bid-build to progressive design-build, is in design-build vs design-bid-build.

Questions that point to CCDC 5A

• Do you have an experienced in-house team, or an owner’s rep, who can administer many contracts and payments?
• Do you want each trade contract in your own name, for example to carry warranties directly or to keep relationships with trades across a portfolio?
• Are you prepared to take on the constructor role, or to formally hand it to the CM?
• Are you comfortable carrying the price risk package by package, with no single party responsible for the whole?

Questions that point to CCDC 5B

• Do you want one party responsible for building the project once the trades are let?
• Do you want the option of a GMP or stipulated price once the design is far enough along?
• Would you rather review one set of cost records, with audit rights, than run a payment process for every trade?
• Is the project large or fast enough that early contractor involvement is worth a cost-plus period?

Before you sign either: a checklist

Work through these with your lawyer and whoever is advising you on cost. Each one should have a written answer.

1. Is it the 2025 edition? And are the supplementary conditions drafted for it, not carried over from a 2010 project?
2. What exactly are the pre-construction deliverables? Estimates at each design stage, by class, with dates; a schedule; constructability reviews; a procurement plan for the trade packages.
3. How is the fee set? Fixed, hourly or a percentage. If it’s a percentage of cost, how does it change when the cost goes up through your changes, or down through value engineering?
4. What’s reimbursable, and what’s in the fee? Site staff by role and duration, temporary facilities, general requirements, insurance and bonds, head office costs.
5. Who are the CM’s people? The proposed project manager, estimator and superintendent by name, with a process for replacing them. The OAA tip suggests looking at their construction and CM experience specifically.
6. What are your audit rights? Under 5B – 2025 it’s one year after final completion. Confirm the records you’ll get: subcontracts, invoices, payroll, equipment logs.
7. How will the trade packages be tendered? Number of bidders per package, who opens the bids, and your right to see every result.
8. When and how would a GMP or stipulated price be set? At what design stage, with how much contingency, and how savings are shared.
9. What are the break fee and termination terms? Under 5B, the break fee is a percentage of the latest estimate, so know what that figure is at each stage.
10. Who is the constructor? Named in the contract, and consistent with who actually runs the site.
11. Is your payment process ready? Who receives invoices, who reviews them, and how you’ll meet the 7, 14 and 28-day deadlines on every contract you hold.
12. Who tracks holdback and lien periods? Under 5A that’s a register by trade contract; under 5B it’s one contract and the CM’s reports on its subcontracts.

Frequently asked questions

What is a CCDC 5A contract?

CCDC 5A is the Canadian standard form for construction management for services. You hire a construction manager to advise during design and manage the work as your agent, and you sign separate stipulated price contracts with each trade, usually on CCDC 17. The CM is paid a fee and doesn’t hold the trade contracts. The current edition is CCDC 5A – 2025.

What is a 5B contract?

CCDC 5B is the construction management contract for services and construction, often called CM at risk. The construction manager advises during design, then hires the trades as its own subcontractors and builds the project. You pay the cost of the work plus a fee, with options to convert to a guaranteed maximum price, a GMP with shared savings, or a stipulated price. The current edition is CCDC 5B – 2025.

What’s the most common type of construction contract in Canada?

The stipulated price, or lump sum, contract. CCDC 2 is one of the most commonly used standard forms in the country: one fixed price for a defined scope on complete drawings. Construction management under 5A or 5B is typically used on larger or faster projects, where design and construction overlap.

What’s the difference between CCDC 2 and CCDC 5B?

CCDC 2 is a stipulated price contract: a general contractor prices a finished design and builds it for that fixed amount. Under CCDC 5B the construction manager joins during design, advises on cost and constructability, then builds the project for the cost of the work plus a fee, with the option to fix a guaranteed maximum or stipulated price once the design is far enough along. How CCDC 2 works is set out in the CCDC 2 stipulated price contract.

What is a CCDC 30 contract?

CCDC 30 is the integrated project delivery contract: one multi-party agreement signed by the owner, consultant, contractor and often key trades, sharing a target cost and a profit pool. Its first update was released in June 2025 (Gowling WLG, 2025). Owners who aren’t setting up that kind of shared-risk team are usually choosing between CCDC 2, 5A and 5B.

Is a GMP the same as a stipulated price?

No. A guaranteed maximum price is a ceiling. You still pay actual cost below it, and under the shared-savings option you split what’s left. A stipulated price is a fixed amount whatever the actual cost turns out to be. CCDC 5B – 2025 offers both, each in its own appendix, and either is elected by Change Order once the design is far enough along to price.

Where to start

If a construction manager’s proposal is on your desk now, spend your time on the fee basis, the reimbursable costs, the pre-construction deliverables and, under 5B, how and when a GMP would be set. Those are the terms that decide what the project costs, and they’re easiest to settle before signing. If you’re earlier than that, decide first whether construction management suits the project at all, or whether a finished design and a CCDC 2 tender would serve you better.

Our construction management experience was built at PCL Constructors and Oxford Properties, and it includes Toronto projects such as Concord Adex’s CityPlace (eight condominium towers, delivered as two back-to-back $540M construction management assignments), 3 Swift (a two-tower, 857-unit rental community) and 1266 Queen Street West (a 24-storey mixed-use building in Parkdale).

We help owners choose between these forms and review CM proposals, fee structures and pre-construction plans before they sign, as part of our construction consulting work. We’ve worked on both sides of these contracts for 20+ years, and the questions above are the ones we’d work through with you.