3(1)All sums received by a builder or contractor or a sub-contractor on account of the contract price are and constitute a trust fund in the hands of the builder or contractor, or of the sub-contractor, as the case may be, for the benefit of the proprietor, builder or contractor, sub-contractors, Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission, workmen and persons who have supplied material on account of the contract or who have rented equipment to be used on the contract site, and the builder or contractor or the sub-contractor, as the case may be is the trustee of all such sums so received by him, and until all workmen and all persons who have supplied material on the contract or who have rented equipment to be used on the contract site and all sub-contractors are paid for work done or material supplied on the contract and the Workplace Health, Safety and Compensation Commission is paid any assessment with respect thereto, may not appropriate or convert any part thereof to his own use or to any use not authorized by the trust.

3(2)Every builder, contractor or sub-contractor who appropriates or converts any part of the contract price referred to in subsection (1) to his own use or to any use not authorized by the trust commits an offence punishable under Part II of the Provincial Offences Procedure Act as a category F offence and every director or officer of a corporation who knowingly assents to or acquiesces in any such offence by the corporation is guilty of such offence in addition to the corporation.

3(3)Notwithstanding the provisions of this section, where a builder, contractor or sub-contractor has paid in whole or part for any materials supplied on account of the contract or for any rented equipment or has paid any workman or sub-contractor who has performed any work or services or placed or furnished any material in respect of such contract, the retention by such builder, contractor or sub-contractor of any amount so paid by him shall not be deemed an appropriation or conversion thereof to his own use or to any use not authorized by the trust.