COR FAQs

The Certifying Partners Program, also known as the certificate of recognition (COR), encourages employers to create an occupational health and safety management system that goes beyond the current legal requirements. The voluntary program recognizes employers that are proactive about improving workplace safety, and dedicated to continual improvement.

SafetyDriven – Trucking Safety Council of BC was created to address the high personal and economic costs of work-related injury and death in the trucking industry. SafetyDriven – TSCBC is a not-for-profit organization that works with management, employees, and owner/operators in the BC trucking industry to strengthen safety performance and reduce the number and severity of workplace injuries, illnesses, and fatalities. SafetyDriven – TSCBC is a partner in WorkSafeBC’s Partners Program which offers COR certification.

A Certifying Partner is an organization that, through agreement with WorkSafeBC, helps guide employers toward a Certificate of Recognition (COR), which certifies that the employer has implemented a safety management system that meets established standards as verified by an audit. Certifying Partners are typically safety associations recognized by WorkSafeBC as having in-depth industry knowledge that is used to promote and develop workplace health and safety; there are different Certifying Partners for different industries. Once an employer registers with a Certifying Partner, the employer is first helped to implement an effective health and safety management system, then to complete and pass a qualifying audit.

Such industries as forestry, oil and gas, construction and food processing, as well as municipal and maritime employers, are all currently involved in the COR program and have Certifying Partners expert in each sector.

In order to qualify for COR, a certification audit is completed by an external auditor for large employers (20 or more full-time employees) or by an internal auditor for small employers (fewer than 20 full-time employees). To pass this audit, a total score of 80 per cent must be attained, and a minimum of 50 per cent must be scored on each audit element. This certification audit is valid for three years. In the following two years, the same audit process is used for internal or maintenance audits. The main purpose of the internal/maintenance audit is to identify and correct deficiencies in the management system.

There is no cost for this voluntary program. The only cost involved is the Internal Auditor training course and hiring an External Auditor if you are a large employer.

No. COR is a voluntary program. Participation in the COR program enhances your company’s health and safety program with the goal of reducing injuries and claims costs. And, your company will be eligible for certain rebates or financial incentives.

Call our office at 1-877-414-8001 or register online.

That will depend on the current state of your Safety Program and the time and resources you have available to put into the development and implementation of the program. Having a SafetyDriven Advisor perform a Safety Evaluation will give you a better idea of the time frame to get COR.

Call our office at 1-877-414-8001 or click on our events calendar for upcoming courses.

• Large Employer training is 2 full days in-class training
• Small Employer training is 2 full days of training offered in-class or over the phone/remote

• Yes, Internal Auditor is allowed to conduct the certification and maintenance audit for Small Employer COR
• No, Internal Auditor is only allowed to conduct the maintenance audit for Large Employer COR

No, you do not need to pass (80% overall and above 50% for each element) of the maintenance audit and still get the rebate.

80% with no elements below 50%

45 days

21 days

• Observation tour
• Pre-audit meeting
• Regulation review

45 days

An audit is a comprehensive review which must be carried out by a qualified auditor, using an audit provided by SafetyDriven. The audit covers the basic elements required for a health and safety program and includes interview, documentation review, and first-hand observation.

If your total score is between 70 and 79 per cent, you have the option of performing a limited-scope audit within 90 days of the original audit date. This limited-scope audit will allow the employer to focus on specific elements that received low scores during the initial audit. If your score is 69 per cent or lower, you must undergo another complete audit at a later date.

You can elect to undergo another audit at any time.

The COR certification is valid for three years from the date of certification, provided the employer performs internal maintenance audits in the second and third years. An external audit is required in year four to complete the re-certification audit.

Quality assurance is a crucial component of the COR program. In essence an External Auditor will audit your Safety Management System, SafetyDriven – TSCBC audits the External Auditors to ensure they are auditing in accordance with SafetyDriven – TSCBC standards and WorkSafeBC audits SafetyDriven – TSCBC to ensure our COR program meets their standards.

No. For large employers, the person doing the internal audit must be a permanent employee of the company. For small employers the person doing the audit must be a permanent employee or dependent contractor. In this circumstance, a dependent contractor means a lease operator or owner operator. They are essentially an employee of the company for audit purposes.

WorkSafeBC uses the following calculation to determine the incentive amount:

Employer’s reported assessable payroll x (CU base rate / 100) x 10%

WorkSafeBC has listed the following circumstances in which a company may not be eligible for a rebate, or in which the rebate may be placed on hold until the issues are resolved:

• The company has engaged in activity that would cause WorkSafeBC to consider imposing an administrative penalty, or if it has already imposed one.
• The company has suppressed claims for compensation or has suppressed claims costs.
• The company has an outstanding balance related to its WorkSafeBC employer account.
• The company has failed to register with WorkSafeBC.
• The company has engaged in other misconduct considered by WorkSafeBC to be inconsistent with participation in the COR program.

Yes, as long as your company maintains its COR status, you will be eligible to receive an annual 10 per cent rebate for completing the Safety Management System COR audit.

Companies will begin receiving their COR rebates as a credit on their WorkSafeBC account in June of the year following their COR certification.

Currently there is no reciprocity between SafetyDriven-TSCBC and the AMTA on COR certification. Things are in motion on that front, but it will be some time before reciprocity is achieved.

In the interim, one way around that hurdle is to achieve COR certification in both provinces. (So yes, you can have COR in more than one province) The tricky bit with this route revolves around where your operations and employees are located. If all of your locations and employees reside in BC, you won’t be able to achieve COR in Alberta, only in BC. If you have at least one location/site in BC and at least one location/site in Alberta you can achieve COR in either or both provinces.

If you are completely BC based and intend to work in Alberta by crossing over the border each day from BC, the best you can do is explain the circumstances to the hiring company in Alberta, and try to convince them to recognize BC COR. (You could have them call/email us and we might be able to help persuade them of the relative equivalency). The two COR programs are fairly similar, there is just no official reciprocity to date.