A workers’-compensation clearance is not one product with a name every province uses the same way. Ontario’s statute never uses the word at all; Alberta’s makes the certificate a mandatory condition of payment; British Columbia’s leaves it to the Board’s discretion.
Key takeaways
SECTION 01 OF 04
Ontario’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997, S.O. 1997, c. 16, Sched. A, s.146(2) is a single sentence: “The person is liable to pay all amounts owing under this Act by the employer immediately before the disposition.” It applies automatically whenever a business sells, leases, transfers or otherwise disposes of all or part of itself, with no dollar cap and no defence for having searched, asked, or not known. The word “clearance” never appears anywhere in the Act — WSIB’s clearance product is a service the Board offers to let a buyer confirm the seller’s account, not a certificate the statute makes into a legal safe harbour in its own right.
SECTION 02 OF 04
Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Act, R.S.A. 2000, c. W-15, s.132(1) puts the duty on both sides of the deal: “the purchaser shall demand of the vendor and the vendor shall deliver to the purchaser, before the purchaser pays any of the purchase price… a certificate from the Board stating that it has no claim under this Act against the vendor”. Subsection (2) sets the consequence, and it is capped: “If the vendor fails to provide the certificate, the purchaser is liable to the Board for an amount that is equal to the amount due from the vendor to the Board, up to an amount equal to the fair market value of the industry, stock or equipment.”
That cap is a real, drafted difference from Ontario’s uncapped rule — and Alberta’s Board has more than one lever besides the certificate. Section 130(2) voids, against the Board, any security interest the employer gave over its own personal property to the extent of unpaid money owing at default, and s.127(1)(b) lets the Board itself “register a financing statement in the Personal Property Registry” over a defaulting employer’s debt. A PPSA search in Alberta can therefore sometimes surface a workers’-compensation default directly — something no Ontario PPSA search will ever show, because Ontario’s Board does not use that registry.
SECTION 03 OF 04
British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act, S.B.C. 2019, c. 1, s.256(2) gives the Board a power, not a self-executing liability: “The Board may, as applicable… levy any deficiency in an assessment on any of the successive owners or employers…”. That is meaningfully different from Ontario’s s.146 — it is the Board’s call whether to pursue a successor at all, and subsection (3) lets successive owners apportion the assessment between themselves by agreement, in proportion to their respective payroll periods, rather than the whole debt landing automatically on whoever bought the business.
SECTION 04 OF 04
The WSIB premiums and claims history a buyer inherits in Ontario goes deeper on the Ontario mechanic and on the separate question of inherited claims experience, and WSIB arrears that followed the assets shows the automatic-liability rule landing on a real buyer. None of that Ontario detail carries over to Alberta’s capped, certificate-driven regime or BC’s discretionary one — naming the province is the first step here just as it is for a PPSA search. Treadstone Law’s note on the WSIB clearance certificate covers the Ontario process itself in more procedural detail.
No. The word “clearance” never appears anywhere in the Act. Section 146(2) imposes automatic, uncapped successor liability for all amounts owing by the employer immediately before the disposition; WSIB’s clearance certificate is the Board’s own administrative product, not a statutory safe harbour.
Yes. Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Act s.132 requires the purchaser to demand and the vendor to deliver a certificate before any of the purchase price is paid. If the vendor fails to provide it, the purchaser is liable, but only up to the fair market value of the industry, stock or equipment purchased — a real cap Ontario’s rule does not have.
Yes. Alberta’s Board can register a financing statement in the Personal Property Registry over a defaulting employer’s unpaid premiums, so a PPSA search there can surface the default directly. Ontario’s Board does not use that registry, so an Ontario PPSA search will never show it.
Sources
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