BCLI Recommendation Implemented: Abolition of the Shimco Lien
October 28, 2025
BY Karen Campbell
Change rarely happens overnight, and sometimes law reform is no exception. Two decades after BCLI first recommended the abolition of the Shimco lien, Bill 20, the Construction Prompt Payment Act, brings that recommendation closer to reality. The BCLI team is always pleased when our recommendations are implemented, and in the case of this change, it is so personally gratifying that one of our BCLI project committee members has penned a limerick to mark the occasion.
In 2004, BCLI published a report examining the decision in Shimco Metal Erectors Ltd. v Design Steel Constructors Ltd. The BC Court of Appeal recognized the existence of a separate lien – subsequently known as the Shimco lien – against the holdbacks that owners and contractors must maintain under the Act. Our report identified a range of concerns with this dual lien theory and advocated for a legislative amendment to abolish the Shimco lien.
Earlier this month, Bill 20 was introduced. It includes the express intent to abolish the Shimco lien and proposes reducing the holdback period from 55 to 46 days. The holdback period is the timeframe during which holdback funds must be retained before they can be released, and during which lien claims can be made against those funds. This amendment also reflects another recommendation made by BCLI in its 2020 report on the Builders Lien Act.
We are thrilled to see these long-standing recommendations adopted, they reflect the ultimate goal of our work: turning careful research and analysis into meaningful reform. We continue to be grateful for the contributions of our project committee volunteers and are sharing here the limerick by project committee member Marc MacEwing, published in the October edition of the Canadian College of Construction Lawyers Legal Update:
There once was a lien, Shimco by name,
That confounded the practice until it was tamed.
Although it generated fees,
It’ll be brought to its knees
By the Construction Prompt Payment Act when it’s proclaimed.
We will continue to monitor Bill 20 as it progresses through the legislative process. For more information on the Shimco lien and recent case law, please see our previous blog post on this topic.
