Custom Safety Manual Requirements in Alberta

1. What Alberta law requires in writing

Alberta's occupational health and safety framework runs through the OHS Act (SA 2020, c O-2.2) and the OHS Code, which is Alberta Regulation 191/2021. Section 3 of the Act sets a general duty that applies to every employer regardless of size: identify, assess, and control hazards; maintain an emergency response plan; provide WHMIS training; and, since March 31, 2025, maintain a written violence and harassment prevention plan under Section 390 - the one Alberta requirement with no worker-count exemption at all.

Two thresholds decide what gets added on top of that general duty. Section 16 requires an employer with 20 or more regularly employed workers - counted across every site - to package its safety obligations into one formal, written health and safety program. Section 13 requires a Joint Health and Safety Committee at that same 20-worker line; Section 14 requires a lighter Health and Safety Representative instead between 5 and 19 workers. A company under 20 workers still owes everything under Section 3 - it just isn't required to bundle it into one named program document.

See our full breakdowns of the 20-worker program threshold and the 2025 violence and harassment plan requirement for the full detail behind each of these.

2. COR and SECOR in Alberta

A written program satisfies the OHS Act, but it isn't the same thing as COR certification. Certificate of Recognition (COR) and Small Employer Certificate of Recognition (SECOR) are voluntary programs, administered by an industry certifying partner rather than the government, that audit a company's safety program against a scored protocol - typically required by prime contractors and unlocking a WCB premium rebate. SECOR applies to employers with 10 or fewer workers; COR applies above that line. For the full comparison, see what COR is, what SECOR is, and COR vs SECOR.

3. What “custom” means for an Alberta manual

Alberta has six main COR certifying partners, and each audits against its own protocol: Alberta Construction Safety Association (ACSA) for construction, Energy Safety Canada (ESC) for oil and gas, Alberta Motor Transport Association (AMTA) for trucking and transportation, Alberta Association of Safety Partnerships (AASP), Alberta Safety Council (ASC), and Manufacturers Health and Safety Association (MHSA). A manual written for the wrong partner's protocol can be well-written and still miss what the actual auditor is scoring against.

Legislation references belong at the Part level - “Fall Protection - AB OHS Code Part 9,” not a pinned section range, since section numbers move at every consolidation and Part numbers almost never do. And more detail isn't automatically safer: an auditor scores whether a company does what its own manual says, not the manual against an abstract ideal. A manual that commits to more than the company can consistently prove - daily inspections where monthly is the norm, certification requirements broader than the job actually needs - creates its own audit finding. As loose as the law allows, never looser, is the standard a manual should be held to.

4. Where Alberta manuals go wrong

The most common defect we see reviewing a purchased or inherited manual is legislation built for a different province - a manual that still cites British Columbia's Workers Compensation Act or Saskatchewan's Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, left over from a template bought off a generic site. The second most common: a company that has grown past its 5-worker Health and Safety Representative threshold into the 20-worker committee requirement, with a manual that was never updated to reflect it. Third, and newest: a manual last touched before March 2025 that has no violence and harassment prevention plan at all, because the requirement didn't exist when it was written.

5. Frequently asked