UPDATED March 29, 2021

On December 1, 2020, The Administration of Estates Act (the “Act”) of Saskatchewan was amended, with many relatively minor amendments that we will go into at in a later blog post.  For the purposes of this post, we will outline one of the most substantial changes for potential Executors relating to notice to claimants.  Also of note, is the change to filing fees which increased from $7 per $1,000 of probatable assets to a $200 base fee, plus $7 per $1,000 of probatable assets.

Section 32 of the Act, which is one of the sections that was recently amended, relates to the “Notice to Claimants” (also called “Notice to Creditors” in The Queen’s Bench Rules of Court) of the deceased. As with the pre-amendment version of the section, the amended section states that an executor or administrator may cause a notice to claimants in the form prescribed in the rules of court (Form 16-48 of The Queen’s Bench Rules of Court). However, the amendment has moved the requirements for the advertising, which used to be listed in the section itself, to The Administration of Estates Regulations, 2020 (the “Regulations”.)

In the Regulations, section 8 starts out the same as the pre-amendment section 32(2) of the Act, requiring the notice to be published once a week for 2 successive weeks in the newspaper published near to the last residence of the deceased, or in any newspaper designated by a Judge pursuant to an application made to the Court. The change to the section is that they also now allow for the option of publishing the notice for 30 days on the Notice Connect website, in place of the newspaper publication*.

NoticeConnect hosts an online platform which provides centralized advertising for creditors from across Canada.  This provides creditors a one-stop place to monitor, rather than having to monitor individual newspapers.

If you require assistance with a notice to creditors, or any matters relating to the administration of an estate, please contact our team of lawyers.

*In a previous version of this post, we referenced the fact that the advertising requirement on NoticeConnect was a requirement in addition to the newspaper filing, this was, at the time, correct. However, the Government of Saskatchewan further revised the Regulations, effective March 26, 2021, amending this to an alternative to the newspaper publication, as opposed to being in addition to the newspaper filing as was the case following the original revision of the Regulations.

About the Author:

Ryan is an associate in the Regina office, where he practices residential and commercial real estate transactions, and wills and estate planning.

About McKercher LLP:

McKercher LLP is one of Saskatchewan’s oldest and largest law firms with offices in Saskatoon and Regina. Our deep roots and client-first philosophy have made our firm rank in the top 5 in Saskatchewan by Canadian Lawyer magazine (2019/20). Integrity, experience and capacity provide innovative solutions for our clients’ diverse legal issues and complex business transactions.

This post is for information purposes only and should not be taken as legal opinions on any specific facts or circumstances.  Counsel should be consulted concerning your own situation and any specific legal questions you may have.