Jurisdiction guide3 short sections

Where the federal regime stands

In force since 2023, one ladder from the Crown's receipt

Part 1

A separate regime for federal real property

The Federal Prompt Payment for Construction Work Act (S.C. 2019, c. 29, s. 387) governs construction work on federal real property anywhere in Canada. It came into force on 9 December 2023 with its two regulations, and every provision is operative: there is nothing pending.

Its shape is unlike the provinces'. Every tier's payment day runs from the same event, the day the Crown received the contractor's proper invoice: the Crown pays by the 28th day, a paid contractor pays its subcontractors by the 35th, a paid subcontractor by the 42nd, and each deeper tier seven days later. Notices of non-payment fall seven days before each tier's own day. Saturdays, statutory holidays and December 24 to January 1 are not counted at all.

There is no deeming rule for a defective invoice, no seven-day pay-when-paid duty, no undertaking to adjudicate and no lien. A payer that lacks the funds because it too received a notice simply says so in its own notice. Adjudication goes to CanDACC, and only the unpaid party may refer.

Part 2

Why you still pick a province

The federal entries in the jurisdiction picker are paired with a province, because the Act reaches into the province where the work is performed at three points:

Holdback. The Act fixes no percentage or period. A contractual holdback is capped at what the province's construction law would retain and released no later than that law's date (s. 12), so work in BC means 10% for 55 days and work in Saskatchewan means 40 clear days.
Holidays and time. Federal counting differs from provincial counting. Ontario's proclaimed Family Day is included; do not assume every provincial payroll holiday qualifies. Local resolutions and other statutory exceptions can matter. Deadlines are kept in the work province's civil time.
Designation. Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta are designated under SOR/2023-270. There the federal Act governs only the Crown-to-contractor tier, and every subcontract below it runs on the provincial Act, with its day counts, forms and undertaking rules. Work in BC or Manitoba stays federal at every tier.

Part 3

What Tiercord does with it

Pick the federal entry for the work province on a project and every clock follows the Act: the ladder from the Crown's receipt, the excluded days, the 21-day CanDACC referral window after the later of the certificate of completion and the last invoice's payment expiry, the 10-day compliance period. Below the Crown in a designated province, Tiercord hands the tier to the province and records that hand-off on every deadline.

One point of law is unsettled: whether Quebec's construction holiday is excluded on a project outside Quebec. Tiercord computes both readings, shows the earlier date and records the other on the deadline, so the record says what the law has not yet said. On a subcontract, record the day the Crown received the proper invoice when you learn it (s. 9(5) gives you the right to ask); until then Tiercord counts from the invoice's own receipt and says so. Jurisdictions & deadlines covers the provincial frameworks.

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