Toronto, Ontario, Canada, January 12th, 2026, FinanceWire
Amidst increasing infrastructure spending across North America, many large-scale projects continue to face delays, budget overruns, or cancellations—often due to unaddressed risks that emerge only after construction begins.
Infrastructure advisor and author Gord Reynolds has released a new delivery framework aimed at identifying and addressing such risks earlier in the project lifecycle. The framework is designed to support improved planning and execution by enabling earlier intervention, when costs are lower and outcomes more manageable.
The framework addresses the hidden issues that routinely undermine major projects: fragmented permitting, poor visibility into underground utilities, misaligned incentives, and a tendency to defer difficult decisions. By addressing these issues prior to the start of construction, the framework is intended to assist public and private sector stakeholders in reducing project uncertainty, managing capital risk, and enhancing delivery predictability.
“Most projects don’t fail during construction,” said Reynolds. “They fail long before it starts—we just don’t admit it until the damage is done.”
The newly public framework is codified through Reynolds’ book, Building Tomorrow’s Ontario, alongside the release of the Digital Twin Ontario Utility Manual. Together, they translate barrier-reduction legislation and the emerging “One Permit, One Project” approach in Canada into an executable system that aligns permitting, utility data, and accountability across agencies and stakeholders.
Rather than promoting technology for its own sake, the model treats digital twins as a practical coordination tool: providing shared, standards-based visibility into assets and risks that are often discovered too late.
“Digital twins aren’t innovation,” Reynolds said. “They’re basic situational awareness for building cities.”
By shifting coordination and truth-telling upstream, the framework is designed to reduce downstream consequences that have become increasingly common in major infrastructure programs, including litigation, political fallout, and loss of public trust.
“Permits don’t slow projects,” Reynolds added. “A lack of coordination does. If you ignore uncertainty early, it shows up later as delays, cost overruns, and lawsuits.”
The approach has already influenced major transit and broadband initiatives and reflects lessons drawn from decades of advising governments, utilities, and capital providers on complex infrastructure delivery. Its public release comes at a moment when rising costs, tighter capital markets, and growing scrutiny are forcing jurisdictions to prove that infrastructure investment can translate into real-world results.
“This isn’t a Canadian issue,” Reynolds said. “Every jurisdiction across North America with big infrastructure ambitions is hitting the same wall.”
“By making the framework publicly available, Reynolds aims to provide decision-makers with a replicable playbook for accelerating delivery, reducing risk, and restoring confidence at a time when infrastructure ambition is colliding with delivery reality.”
About Gord Reynolds
Gord Reynolds is an infrastructure advisor and author specializing in large, complex public infrastructure projects across transportation, energy, utilities, and digital systems. He works with governments, utilities, and investors to remove barriers to construction and improve delivery outcomes before projects go sideways. Reynolds is the author of Building Tomorrow’s Ontario and is known for translating policy ambition into executable infrastructure systems grounded in lived delivery experience.
Website: https://battersea.ca/
Book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/BUILDING-TOMORROWS-ONTARIO-Infrastructure-Partnerships/dp/1778355277