Contractor did not do the job, still expects me to have them eventually do it and be paid for it
I have a contractor who has not delivered on agreed upon work scheduled in February which was the agreed upon date to get it done. He then failed to deliver on subsequent timeframes that he said he would do it in. It is work of a time sensitive nature in my household, and may have health and/or sanitary repercussions for not being done by now.
He now refuses to give me a date or timeframe as to when it will be done, after multiple times asking.
Here's the kicker- when I asked him for the deposit payment back for labour after the prolonged time of asking without a response on a completion timeframe, he said no and told me I still owe it to him to get it done and pay him for the remaining agreed upon labour charge for completion.
He still has not provided a date, and ignores questions I have about the effects of the work not being done when it was supposed to be. Doing it now seems to me to be a bigger problem than getting someone to redo previous work first so the work in question can be done properly.
Exchanges about all (edit: at least much, but not neccessarily all) of this exists in my text history.
It is not for a lot of money, but I do not trust him or wish for him to work on this anymore and am wondering if I can legally terminate him from the job without further pay, so I may get someone else to do it in good time. If not, what options do I have?
I live in Ontario. The closest thing we have to a contract is what was agreed upon in text messages.