In the May 2019 issue of Canadian Lawyer Marg Bruineman writes about the changes afoot in construction lien legislation across Canada.

In the article she talks about how the increasingly complicated construction projects have necessitated discussions around prompt payment and adjudication regimes.  Industry groups such as subcontractors and trades have been calling for legislative reform as money is slow to “cascade down the construction pyramid” when claims choke the cashflow of a project.

In the article, Jared Epp gives his take on the current situation in Saskatchewan:

Saskatchewan, like Ontario, is conceiving of a very broad adjudication regime as part of this new legislation and it would allow a lot of the interim disputes and disputes before the project is completed to to put in front of someone, probably from someone in industry, just to make some sort of a decision.  There are still quite a few disputes in construction projects that wind their way through the courts, but there’s really no need for them to go that way.  In a lot of cases, parties simply need someone to make a decision.

Exciting times in the construction industry!