The short version
Since August 29, 2022, Alberta's Prompt Payment and Construction Lien Act puts hard deadlines on every link of the payment chain, and they apply to commercial jobs in Calgary like everywhere else in the province. Older contracts still running had until August 29, 2024 to comply.
The three numbers that matter most to a subcontractor:
- 7 days. Once the GC is paid for your work, it has 7 days to pay you.
- 35 days. If the owner does not pay the GC, the GC still has to pay you within 35 days of invoicing the owner, unless it sends you a formal notice of non-payment and commits to adjudication.
- 60 days. That is how long you have to register a lien after your work on the job is finished: 90 if your work is concrete.
How the payment clock works
The clock starts when the GC gives the owner a proper invoice. Your own bill to the GC feeds into that invoice, so the practical rule is simple: get your invoice to the GC in time to make its next billing.
| Step | Deadline | Section |
|---|---|---|
| Owner pays the GC | 28 days after receiving a proper invoice | 32.2(1) |
| Owner disputes the invoice | Notice of dispute within 14 days | 32.2(2) |
| GC pays you after being paid | 7 days after receiving payment | 32.3(1) |
| Owner paid only part | GC pays you your share within 7 days | 32.3(2) |
| Owner did not pay | GC pays you within 35 days of invoicing the owner | 32.3(4) |
| You pay your own subs | 7 days after you are paid | 32.5(1) |
Any undisputed part of an invoice still has to be paid on time. A dispute over one line does not freeze the whole bill.
What makes an invoice "proper"
Section 32.1 lists what a proper invoice must contain. A bill missing any of these is not a proper invoice, and both the owner's 28 days and the 35-day protection below run from a proper invoice:
- the contractor's name and business address
- the invoice date and the period the work was done
- what authorizes the work: the contract, written or verbal
- a description of the work or materials
- the amount requested and the payment terms, broken down
- the name, title and contact information of the person to be paid
- a statement that the invoice is intended to be a proper invoice
Proper invoices go to the owner at least every 31 days, unless the contract makes payment depend on testing and commissioning. A contract clause that makes the invoice itself depend on prior certification or owner approval is of no force, outside testing and commissioning.
When the GC says it hasn't been paid
"Pay when paid" is not a free pass under this Act. If the owner has not paid, the GC has two lawful options, and it has to pick one before the 35 days run out.
Pay you anyway by day 35 after it invoiced the owner.
Or give you a notice of non-payment on the prescribed form. It must state the amount not being paid, include a copy of any notice of dispute the owner sent, and come with the GC's undertaking to refer the matter to adjudication within 21 days. The notice is due within 7 days of the GC receiving the owner's dispute, or before day 35 if the owner never sent one.
A GC that disputes your work, rather than passing on the owner's dispute, has to send you its own notice of non-payment with the amount and all of its reasons, on the same deadlines.
Adjudication: the fast way to settle a payment fight
Adjudication is a short, binding process run by an adjudicator rather than a court. It covers disputes over the value of work, payment, notices of non-payment, and holdback, among other things.
- You send a notice of adjudication to the other party and, the same day, to a Nominating Authority. Alberta has two: ARCANA (AB) and ADACC. Your contract may already name one.
- The Nominating Authority appoints an adjudicator within about 11 days (4 days for the parties to agree on one, then 7).
- You send the adjudicator your contract and documents within 5 days of the appointment. The other side has 12 days to respond.
- The adjudicator decides within 30 days of receiving your documents, extendable by up to 10 days. The order can require payment by a date and let you stop work if that date passes.
The decision is binding unless a court or an arbitrator later decides otherwise, or the parties settle in writing. You can register the order with the court and enforce it like a judgment once 30 days have passed. Fees are set by each Nominating Authority.
There is a deadline: you generally cannot start an adjudication more than 30 days after the date of final payment under your subcontract.
Holdback: the 10% you get later
On a lienable job the owner keeps back 10% of the value of work done. That holdback is the fund that protects everyone below the GC if someone in the chain does not pay.
- It is held for 60 days from the date of the certificate of substantial performance, or from completion if no certificate is issued.
- For work primarily related to concrete, it is 90 days.
- Whoever issues a certificate of substantial performance must post a signed copy in a conspicuous place on the job site within 3 days, or otherwise make sure the people working there can see it. Watch for it: it starts the clock on your holdback.
"Substantially performed" has a number attached. The work, or a substantial part of it, must be ready for use or in use, and the remaining work must cost no more than 3% of the first $500,000 of the price, 2% of the next $500,000, and 1% of the rest.
On large contracts with a schedule longer than a year, the contract can release holdback annually or in defined phases, provided no liens are outstanding. The province describes this as applying to contracts of at least $10 million.
Liens: the deadline you cannot fix later
A builders' lien is registered against the land at Alberta Land Titles. It is your security if you are not paid.
| Your lien is for | Register within |
|---|---|
| Work under your subcontract | 60 days from completing or abandoning it |
| Materials | 60 days from the last delivery |
| Concrete work or concrete supply | 90 days |
Two traps:
- Coming back to fix a deficiency does not restart the clock. Section 41(5) says the deadline is not extended because something done wrong is corrected later.
- A registered lien expires after 180 days unless you start a court action on it and register a certificate of lis pendens within that time.
If you register a lien, the Act lets you demand, in writing, to see the contract and a statement of the state of accounts: what has been paid, and what is still owed.
Which jobs this covers
The prompt payment rules cover private commercial work in Alberta: tenant improvements, retail fit-outs, multi-family, industrial. Agreements in which the Government of Alberta finances and undertakes the improvement are excluded from the Act.
Provincial government projects fall under the Public Works Act instead. Since April 1, 2025 it has its own prompt payment and adjudication rules, and it gives subs one thing private work does not:
- Anyone unpaid on a provincial public work can claim directly to Alberta Infrastructure, at any level of the contracting chain, if the party that owes them has not paid. Highway and road work is excluded and handled by Alberta Transportation. The written claim goes by registered mail, no later than 45 days after the last day you supplied labour, equipment, materials or services.
- Alberta Infrastructure runs a line for subcontractors, 1-844-252-5322, to find out when it paid the general contractor. If the province paid and you were not, you know where the money stopped.
What to do this week
- Put your invoice to the GC on the GC's billing cycle, so it lands on the next proper invoice.
- Write down the date the GC tells you it billed the owner. Your 35 days run from it.
- When your scope is finished, write down that date too. Your 60 days, or 90 for concrete, run from it.
- Keep every notice you receive. A notice that blames the owner must come with a copy of the owner's dispute and the GC's undertaking to adjudicate. Without them, it is not the notice the Act describes.
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