Contractors should take steps to maximize surety credit as COVID-19 threatens to toughen market

via On-Site  By David Kennedy

COVID-19 has disrupted work on job sites coast to coast, and the pandemic is expected to limit productivity on the ground for at least several more months.

But the virus’s impact on the industry is not limited to construction sites. According to two experts at Trisura Guarantee Insurance Co., contractors should brace for a post-COVID surety bond market that is tougher than its pre-crisis incarnation.

“Some might suggest that surety credit has been fairly easy to come by in recent years, and they’d be right,” said Matt Baynton, senior vice-president of Surety at Trisura, in a webinar hosted by the Canadian Construction Association.

Pointing to a number of years of strong construction industry performance, Baynton said the welcoming environment led to favourable terms and fairly easy-to-come-by surety bonds before the pandemic.

“The big unknown really, is the go-forward and what impacts COVID might have on the marketplace and whether or not that makes bonding a little bit tougher to come by,” he said.

Chris Kucman, Trisura’s senior vice-president of Distribution & Field Operations, anticipates it will.

“With everything that we’re seeing and going through, I think things are going to get tougher as a general rule,” he said in the June 11 webinar. To what extent, he added, will depend on a number of factors, including what steps governments take.

At the same time, Kucman stressed accessing bonds will not necessarily be more difficult for all industry players. Contractors with strong track records can expect little or no impact, but th