Coverage, screening and licensing

WorkSafeBC coverage

Commercial cleaning sits in WorkSafeBC classification unit 764014, and the 2026 base premium rate for that unit is $1.03 per $100 of assessable payroll, against a $1.55 average across all British Columbia employers. We keep the account current and can supply a clearance letter addressed to your business and covering the whole contract period. It is free to issue, it comes from WorkSafeBC rather than from us, and we send it with the quote.

WHMIS, and the spray bottle problem

Chemical obligations sit in Part 5 of British Columbia's Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. Sections 5.6 and 5.7 require worker education and training on the hazards, labels, and safe use and storage of every hazardous product. Section 5.8 requires the supplier label to stay on the container as received. Sections 5.9 and 5.10 are the ones most often missed on a cleaning contract: the moment concentrate is decanted into a spray bottle, that bottle needs a workplace label. Sections 5.14 through 5.16 require a current safety data sheet for every product, readily available to workers at the workplace. The federal supplier transition to amended WHMIS ended on 15 December 2025, so current labels and data sheets should all be in the amended format.

Insurance and bonding

We carry commercial general liability insurance, which is the coverage that responds when a floor machine meets a glass partition, and we provide the certificate with the quote. Bonding is a separate product: a fidelity bond protects a customer against loss from employee theft rather than covering property damage. No British Columbia regulator confers the word — Consumer Protection BC licenses a defined list of sectors, and cleaning is not among them — so we tell you which coverage we hold and give you the paperwork for it.

Criminal record checks, and the childcare exception

British Columbia's Criminal Records Review Act requires employers to ensure that anyone working with children, or having potential unsupervised access to them, undergoes a criminal record check and is authorised before employment begins. The definition of employee reaches independent contractors, so a cleaning company's staff are captured where the work brings them into that position. Childcare is stricter and simpler: the Child Care Licensing Regulation prohibits a licensee from permitting anyone over the age of 12 to be ordinarily present on the premises while children are there unless a criminal record check has been obtained. A daycare cleaned after hours sits in a different position from one cleaned during the day, and the contract should say which.

One licence, nine municipalities

British Columbia runs mobile business licence partnerships covering 104 communities through 17 agreements, for businesses that perform a service at a client's premises rather than having clients come to them. Cleaning services are named in the program's own description. We hold the Central Vancouver Island licence, which covers twelve communities including Duncan, North Cowichan, Ladysmith, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland, alongside a base licence in our home municipality.

Before a contract starts

1. Documents with the quote — The clearance letter and the certificate of insurance arrive with the written scope, not after a request for them.
2. Screening on file — Criminal record check confirmations are held for every crew member with building access, and childcare sites are staffed to the stricter standard.
3. Licence matched to the building — We confirm the licence covering your community before the first visit, not our own address.