Conversion of COR to SAFE

The BC Forest Safety Council makes every effort to ensure a level playing field for bidding on forestry contracts. Companies that have WorkSafeBC Certification of Recognition (COR) certification through either BC Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA), Energy Safety Canada (ESC - formerly Enform), SafetyDriven or AgSafe can obtain SAFE Companies Certification. 

This process is available to any AgSafe, BCCSA, ESC or SafetyDriven COR-certified company that works in the forestry sector in BC, unless the company:

• wants a forestry COR certification in addition to the construction, oil and gas or trucking COR certification,  
• wants to SAFE-certify one or more of its classification units (CUs) that are already assigned or aligned with forestry, or
• has a forestry aligned WorkSafeBC classification unit.

In these cases, the company must follow the normal SAFE certification process:

Register with SAFE Companies

Complete the registration form and pay the fee based on the portion of the company being registered.  If a company can show that only a specific list of people are involved in forestry they can choose to certify only that portion of the company. The company’s registration and SAFE certification will contain a rider such as ‘forestry operations only’.

Take Training

A supervisory person takes the online Forestry Safety Overview course, where they will learn about the BC forestry industry, including:

• economic impact 
• land ownership
• First Nations consent 
• bid processes
• how and what regulations are applicable to forestry operations in BC
• how to implement a safety management system that will meet industry and regulatory requirements
• ensure that new entrants meet expectations of the industry while keeping new and existing operators safe.

Provide Annual Documentation

Small Employers
Companies converting as small employers in forestry will use the Small Employer SAFE Conversion Submission and provide two documents in place of an annual SAFE Companies audit:

1. The Quality Assurance report letter from AgSafe, BCCSA, ESC or SafetyDriven dated within the last 12 months and
2. Proof that the person who took the Forestry Safety Overview is still a permanent employee. A signed declaration by company management on company letterhead is sufficient.

Large Employers
Companies converting as large employers in forestry will use the Large Employer SAFE Conversion Administrative Audit Submission for their first submission.

For subsequent submissions, the COR auditor needs to complete 2-8 additional BASE questions in conjunction with the COR audit. The COR auditor will need additional training for the BASE questions unless they are already a BCFSC certified BASE auditor.

• Large Employer SAFE Conversion Audit Submission - BCCSA
  • For second and subsequent submissions
• Large Employer SAFE Conversion Audit Submission - Energy Safety Canada
  • For second and subsequent submissions
• Large Employer SAFE Conversion Audit Submission - SafetyDriven
  • For second and subsequent submissions

Note that there is not currently a large employer conversion process for AgSafe, only small.

In years where there is no forestry work the Large Employer SAFE Conversion Administrative Audit Submission may be used.

SAFE Certification

The company (or its defined portion) is issued a SAFE certificate and published on the SAFE Certified list on the BCFSC website. The next submission to SAFE companies is due three months after the AgSafe, BCCSA, ESC or SafetyDriven COR submission due date, in order to allow a new Quality Assurance report letter to be obtained from the other Certifying Partner following their COR audit. It is the company’s responsibility to ensure that all annual submission requirements are met in order to maintain SAFE certification. AgSafe, BCCSA, ESC or SafetyDriven will retain primary COR quality assurance responsibilities, while BCFSC will also perform forestry-specific desktop and field quality assurance activities.

For More Information

Please contact Laurel at Laurel.Laturnus@bcforestsafe.org or call 1-877-741-1060.