Wrongful Claims Under Alberta’s Public Works Act: Can Contractors Fight Back?

When a claim is filed under Alberta’s Public Works Act, payments on a public project (where the Province of Alberta is the owner) can be frozen with very little recourse for the contractor. Despite recent amendments, Alberta contractors performing work on a construction project that constitutes a “public work” under the Public Works Act¹ will continue to be challenged by the Act’s simplified claims process as it provides almost no opportunity to challenge claims submitted against a public project. This is consistently an issue as the provincial government will almost certainly withhold payments from the contractor where there are outstanding Public Works claims.

In a noteworthy decision, Opabin Sand and Gravel Inc. v Tsuu T’ina Contracting Limited Partnership,²  the court found that common law remedies, including claims in tort, may be available as against parties to a construction project who commence claims under the Public Works Act that fall outside that statute’s provisions in