What adjudication is, and what it is not
Adjudication is not arbitration, a lien, or a lawsuit. It is an interim determination made quickly and largely on documents; interim is the operative word. In Ontario it binds until a court determines the matter, an arbitration under the Arbitration Act, 1991 determines it, or the parties reach a written agreement. The others end it on different triggers: Saskatchewan and Manitoba on any court order made with respect to the matter, or a set-aside; Alberta where a party-appointed arbitrator has made an award, the parties reach a written agreement after the determination, or the court simply directs otherwise; federally only a written agreement or an order or award actually setting it aside. Only Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba expressly permit referring a matter already before a court or arbitrator, unless that proceeding has been finally determined. A court or arbitrator can still weigh the merits afresh, though Ontario and Alberta carve the review route out of that guarantee where Saskatchewan and Manitoba preserve it despite their set-aside sections.
What can be adjudicated, and the deadline that ends the right
Two things gate availability; most summaries cover only the second. First, subject matter: every regime confines adjudication to a defined list. Ontario and Alberta use prescribed matters; Saskatchewan and Manitoba use enumerated lists that both reach valuation, payment and change orders, and disputes under a notice of non-payment, then differ — retained holdback in Saskatchewan, set-off and failure to submit a proper invoice in Manitoba. All four also let the parties agree a matter onto the list, so none of those lists is closed. The federal Act is narrowest and has no such catch-all, reaching only non-payment disputes raised by a contractor or subcontractor not fully paid. Going off-list is an express ground to set the determination aside in all four provinces, and in Saskatchewan and Manitoba that bars adjudicating the matter again. Second, timing: every jurisdiction counts from a different event. Ontario changed on January 1, 2026: notice may now be given up to 90 days after the contract is completed, abandoned or terminated; before, completion ended it. For a subcontract it runs from the earliest of that date, certification under section 33, and the subcontractor's last supply. Saskatchewan and Manitoba allow no grace period. Alberta runs 30 days from the date of final payment: the earlier of actual payment and the day it was due under the prompt-payment sections, excluding the lien funds and post-substantial-performance work. Federally it is 21 days after a certificate of completion or, where your work is on the last proper invoice, that invoice's payment deadline, whichever is later. Ontario's contract bar and the Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba bars yield to the parties' agreement; Ontario's subcontract window and the federal 21 days do not.
How long it really takes to see money
Take Ontario, the most prescriptive. If the agreed registry adjudicator has not consented within four days of the notice, you must ask the Authority, which has seven days to appoint. Within five days of an adjudicator agreeing or being appointed you deliver the notice, the contract and your documents. The adjudicator then has 30 days from those documents, extendable by 14 on the adjudicator's request with the parties' written consent, or by any period the parties agree with the adjudicator's consent. The payer then has 15 days to pay, a January 1, 2026 change from 10. That is roughly 50 to 61 days before the cheque is even due, and 61 is no hard ceiling: nothing requires an adjudicator to accept an appointment. Saskatchewan and Manitoba run the same four, seven, five and 30-day steps with a 10-day payment period, giving about 45 to 56 days. Alberta cannot be totalled this way: no statutory payment period follows the determination, so payment is due only within the time the adjudicator specifies, and the certified order may take seven days more. Its four-, seven- and twelve-day steps also run slower than they look: the regulation counts a calendar day as excluding Saturdays and holidays. Federal work cannot be totalled at all: the Act sets no appointment, document or determination deadline, only 10 days to pay, and even that yields to a limit set in the determination. One deadline bites the other way: a late determination is of no force or effect, flatly in Ontario and subject to the regulations in Saskatchewan and Manitoba.
What it costs, and who pays
In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba the parties bear their own costs and split the adjudicator's fee equally, subject to the bad-faith provision below and, in Manitoba, the regulations. Alberta divides the adjudication's own charges equally unless the adjudicator, acting within the Nominating Authority's policies, directs otherwise, and is silent on legal costs; federally each party pays its own costs plus an equal share of the adjudicator's fees. ODACC, Ontario's Authorized Nominating Authority, publishes fixed adjudicator fees for claims under $50,000, set out below, so a $20,000 claim costs each side about $850 to have decided inside a month; above that the adjudicator bills hourly from $300. There is also a penalty for wasting everyone's time in Ontario, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and federally: an adjudicator who finds a party acted frivolously, vexatiously, abusively or in bad faith may shift the other side's costs and fees onto it. Alberta has no such power; its adjudicator may only refuse to hear a frivolous or vexatious dispute.
If they still do not pay the determination
In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba an unpaid contractor or subcontractor may suspend further work under that contract until paid the amount determined, accrued interest, and the reasonable costs of suspending, then claim the costs of resuming. Federally the unpaid party may suspend without breach, once the payer has missed the deadline. Alberta differs again: the right to stop work comes from the adjudicator's order, which may allow it if the specified time for payment expires, not from the statute. Enforcement follows one pattern in Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba: file the determination, in Ontario a certified copy, and it is enforceable as a court order within two years of the determination reaching the parties or of a failed challenge, whichever is later. Alberta's window is the same two years, but registration is by the clerk and only if the order is submitted at least 30 days after the parties received it and no court order affecting its binding nature, arbitration in progress, award, or written agreement made after the determination, has intervened: a payer who starts an arbitration blocks registration while it runs. Federally you may file only once the payer has missed the deadline, on a flat two years from receipt. Challenging is hardest in Ontario: leave of the Divisional Court within 35 days, dismissable without reasons, no appeal. The other three take an application within 30 days, Alberta's running from the notice of determination and requiring service, not just filing. In none of the four does a challenge automatically stay the determination, though in Saskatchewan and Manitoba the duty to pay is expressly subject to the set-aside section where Ontario's is not.
Financing the gap adjudication leaves behind
Adjudication settles who is right. It does not settle Friday. Even a clean Ontario run leaves seven to nine weeks between notice and funds, and there is a catch a financing plan must allow for: in Ontario and Saskatchewan the duty to pay is expressly subject to any holdback the payer must retain, so the cheque can lawfully arrive short by the holdback. Meanwhile the crew is weekly, the supplier is on 30 days, and the billings nobody is arguing about sit in someone's accounts payable. Those are the receivables that finance the wait. A factor will not buy the invoice in adjudication; a disputed billing is what it excludes, and it verifies with the payer before advancing. What it will buy is the clean, properly invoiced work on your other jobs, and the discipline that makes a receivable factorable also makes an adjudication straightforward: proper invoices, holdback stated plainly, a record of what was billed and when. Keep the disputed job in its own lane, adjudicate it, and fund payroll from the billings nobody disputes. British Columbia, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick have no adjudication yet: BC's Construction Prompt Payment Act received Royal Assent on November 27, 2025 and is not yet in force, so there the levers remain the lien, the contract, and financing the gap.
Questions operators ask
How long does construction adjudication take in Canada?
In Ontario, appointment can take up to eleven days, you have five days to deliver documents, the adjudicator has 30 days, and the payer then has 15 days to pay — roughly 50 to 61 days from notice to a cheque being due, before any extension or challenge, and 61 is no hard ceiling because no adjudicator is required to accept an appointment. Saskatchewan and Manitoba run the same steps with a 10-day payment period, giving about 45 to 56 days. Alberta cannot be totalled this way, because payment is due only within the time the adjudicator specifies, and neither can federal work, where the Act sets no appointment, document or determination deadline at all.
Can I still adjudicate after the job is finished?
It depends on the jurisdiction, and they genuinely differ. Ontario allows a notice up to 90 days after the contract is completed, abandoned or terminated, a change that took effect January 1, 2026. Saskatchewan and Manitoba do not allow an adjudication to be commenced once the contract or subcontract is completed. Alberta runs 30 days from the date of final payment, and federal work runs 21 days from a certificate of completion or, where your work is on the last proper invoice, that invoice's payment deadline, whichever is later. The parties can agree otherwise in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and on Ontario contracts — but the Act gives them no way to on Ontario subcontracts or on federal work.
What does an adjudication cost?
In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba each side bears its own costs and the adjudicator's fee is split equally. ODACC publishes fixed fees for smaller Ontario claims — $1,300 up to $9,999, $1,700 from $10,000 to $24,999, $2,700 from $25,000 to $34,999 and $3,700 from $35,000 to $49,999, before HST — so a $20,000 claim runs about $850 a side. At $50,000 and above the adjudicator bills hourly from $300, with referral and certification fees on top.
Can I stop work if the payer ignores the determination?
In Ontario, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, yes — you may suspend further work under that contract or subcontract until you are paid the determined amount, accrued interest, and your reasonable costs of suspending, and you are entitled to the reasonable costs of resuming as well. Federally you may suspend without it being a breach, once the payer has missed the applicable deadline. Alberta is different: there the ability to stop work comes from the adjudicator's order rather than from the statute.