Industry celebrates new legislation to protect contractors from systemic late payments
Statement from the Saskatchewan Construction Association
The Saskatchewan Construction Association is so excited today to be able to officially announce that Prompt Payment legislation will be coming into force in Saskatchewan on March 1, 2022.
We know that construction companies struggle with unpaid receivables, and that our members regularly deal with bills in 90 days arrears and more, due to this strange quirk of construction law where people could get away without paying their bills. Contractors have been financing the projects they’ve been building for far too long. Prompt Payment will help bring an end to this practice and rebalance the contractual power scales.
Starting with any contracts signed on or after March 1, 2022, contractors will have the right to expect payment within 28 days of filing a proper invoice. Undisputed portions of an invoice can no longer have payment withheld while disputed portions are adjudicated. If there is a dispute about payment, there will be a fast-moving adjudication process that will quickly and inexpensively resolve disputes and provide enforceable judgements.
In the case that a contractor still hasn’t been paid after a favourable judgement, they can walk off the job and they cannot be replaced on the job site, and their demobilization and remobilization costs would be the responsibility of the party owing the money.
This legislation is six and a half years in the making.
We wish to thank the eight industry partners in the Prompt Payment Saskatchewan coalition for their steadfast commitment to ensuring that construction companies are paid for work they’ve successfully completed on time and to specification:
The Canadian Institute of Steel Constructors
The Mechanical Contractors Association of Saskatchewan
The Electrical Contractors Association of Saskatchewan
The General Contractors Association of Saskatchewan
The Saskatchewan Roofing Contractors Association
The Saskatchewan Masonry Institute
The Saskatchewan Association of Architects
The Saskatchewan Construction Association
We also want to thank our members - your work to call your MLAs, write letters, and keep telling your stories, helped bring home the realities of payment problems in construction to provincial decision-makers.
Finally, thank you to Saskatchewan’s Attorney General and Minister of Justice, the Honourable Gordon Wyant, for his leadership and support on this file, as well as all the Ministers and MLAs, on both sides of the aisle in our Legislature, for their constant work on this file over the years.
In the coming weeks, expect to see a flurry of activity as we get ready to roll out the new law. The newly formed Saskatchewan Construction Dispute Resolution Office – or SCDRO – is made of up a diverse group of experienced industry professionals, who will be taking on the responsibility of overseeing the adjudication process. The training and oversight of adjudicators will be handled by our partners at the Alternate Dispute Resolution Saskatchewan.
Training and information sessions for the industry at large should be available later this year.
