Alberta Construction Safety Association
Certificate of Recognition (COR) Process
The Certificate of Recognition program is available to all members and associate members of the ACSA from owner/operators to large corporations and is administered by the Alberta Construction Safety Association.
The above courses require six days of training and can be completed within a month’s time if taken in Edmonton or Calgary. For outlying regions, the above courses are offered twice annually. NOTE: for certification as an ACSA auditor, a self-audit must be submitted within six months of completing the two-day course.
The process to obtaining a Certificate of Recognition for companies with ten or more employees is:
STEP 1 – Register the company in the program by filling in the attached COR registration form and faxing it back to the ACSA.
STEP 2 - Have at least one full-time employee complete the following core courses:
Principles of Health & Safety Management – A one-day course designed to help the company develop and implement a health & safety program.
Auditor Training – A two-day course designed to help the person responsible for health & safety understand how to measure the effectiveness of the program within the company. This person is also required to be available to carry out an external peer audit (when requested by the ACSA) according to the requirements of the program.
Leadership for Safety Excellence – A two-day course designed to help the supervisor understand their health & safety roles and responsibilities. The course covers legislation, inspections, investigations and training (safety meetings, etc.).
Train-the-trainer course – A one-day course in either Flagperson or Transportation of Dangerous Goods (TDG) or Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS). Once the course is successfully completed, the participant can train other workers within the company.
STEP 3 – On completion of the required training, the auditor must submit a self audit and be confirmed as a certified auditor before the company can request an external PEER audit. A “Site Assessment for Peer Audit” form must be filled out and faxed to the COR department in the Edmonton office (phone for a copy of this form). Arrangements for the audit, from notification date, could take from approximately four weeks to arrange. This timeframe is required due to audit load, availability of auditors within the industry, construction season activities, etc.
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STEP 4 – The external PEER audit should take approximately two working days to complete, for a company with up to 30 employees, depending on location of the active work site(s) in relation to the head office. Once the audit has been completed and the close out meeting (between the auditor and the company) has been held, the audit document must be forwarded by the company to the ACSA for review. This process should take less than ten days to complete, barring any unforeseen errors and/or omissions in the audit.
a) Peer audited companies will provide a peer audit equal to the amount of “Auditor days” that it takes to complete the peer audit. The travel costs(*) for the peer auditor will be paid by the audited company. The auditors will be chosen by the ACSA from accepted member companies firstly and others secondly.
b) Company will do these “auditor days” within 180 days or will pay $600/day that their audit took.
c) These monies will be due to the ACSA.
d) Companies who choose to pay for external audits will not be required to perform peer audits.
* Travel expense reimbursement as per ACSA guidelines.
Click here for a complete Certificate Of Recognition (COR) information package in PDF.
STEP 7 – Audited company will have their COR revoked if Step 6 is not complied with via payment by monies or “auditor days”. Approval must be granted by the Executive Director of the ACSA before the COR will be revoked.
STEP 5 – The ACSA forwards a request for certification to Alberta Human Resources and Employment, Workplace Health & Safety for issuance of the Certificate of Recognition. This process could take up to four weeks to complete.
STEP 6 - Peer Auditor Selection and renumeration.