In what circumstances will a plaintiff be allowed to amend his Statement of Claim?

In the more recent case of Milfive Investments v. Sefel, 1998 ABCA 161, an appeal of a pre-trial order permitting amendments to a Statement of Claim, Côté J.A. reaffirmed the presumption that any amendment should be allowed if there is no prejudice to the other side that cannot be compensated for in costs. The defendants in that case did not file any evidence of prejudice or cross-examine the plaintiff on its affidavit. Mr. Justice Côté concluded that the amount of delay and the nature of the new allegations were not strong enough to compel an inference of prejudice from the delay alone. As he commented at para. 2: “Sometimes want of any evidence on one side is eloquent.”