Two pieces of paper in every vendor file — a WSIB clearance and a certificate of insurance — expire on different clocks and prove less than most vendor files assume. Tracking the wrong thing leaves the building owner exposed exactly when it matters.
Key takeaways
A vendor file usually holds two distinct pieces of paper that get treated as one — a certificate of insurance and a WSIB clearance — and they expire on different logic. A WSIB clearance is not tied to a specific project the way most managers assume: “this clearance number is valid for all your contracts and is valid for up to 90 days.” In Ontario, “a clearance will automatically be created for your business as long as you are up-to-date on your WSIB payments and reporting” — renewal is conditional, not guaranteed. In practice that means a clearance obtained at contract signing is not a one-time check — it needs to be pulled again if the job runs longer than 90 days, and it can lapse mid-project even without anyone requesting it again, since renewal is not automatic once an account falls behind.
This is not a paperwork technicality for the building owner. WSIB’s own operational policy is explicit: “if the contractor has payment obligations owing to the WSIB, the principal may be liable for the unpaid premiums and other outstanding amounts, up to the value of the labour portion of the contract(s) between the contractor and the principal.” A property manager who lets a clearance lapse without noticing is not just out of compliance — the owner they represent is directly exposed to the contractor’s own unpaid premiums, up to the labour value of the job. This is also where Ontario and BC diverge in a way worth knowing if a portfolio spans both: Ontario’s clearance mechanic resets on a 90-day cycle across all of a contractor’s work, while WorkSafeBC’s equivalent protection shifts liability for the entire contract period rather than in 90-day increments — two different mechanics, not one national rule with a different number attached.
The insurance side has its own version of the same trap. A certificate of insurance shows that a policy existed as of the date it was issued — it is a snapshot, not a live feed, and a vendor whose policy lapses the following month does not automatically send an updated certificate unless the contract requires it. Being named an “additional insured” on that policy is a separate question entirely: “the scope of what’s actually covered depends entirely on the specific endorsement wording” — some endorsements are broad, some are narrow, and additional-insured status is not one fixed standard The certificate itself typically will not reproduce that wording, which is exactly why the advice is to review the actual policy wording rather than assuming “general liability” covers everything the contract needs it to cover before assuming a listed additional-insured status means what it sounds like it means.
The two documents are not redundant with each other, which is worth spelling out for anyone tempted to treat one as a substitute for the other. Commercial general liability insurance is designed to cover claims that the vendor’s operations caused bodily injury or property damage to someone outside the vendor’s own business — explicitly not the vendor’s own property, its professional services, or its own employees’ workplace injuries A WSIB clearance is the piece that covers the gap CGL explicitly leaves open: a worker on the vendor’s payroll injured on the job is a WSIB matter, not a CGL claim. A building that only tracks one of the two documents has, by definition, left one entire category of risk untracked — a third party hurt by the vendor’s work sits on one document, the vendor’s own crew sits on the other, and neither document stands in for the other in a claim.
A workable system needs three fields per vendor, not one: the WSIB clearance number and its 90-day expiry, the certificate of insurance issue date and the underlying policy’s renewal date, and whether an additional-insured endorsement (not just a certificate line item) is actually on file. A calendar reminder set 15 days before the clearance expiry gives enough lead time to re-pull it without work stopping; the same lead time on the insurance renewal date catches a lapse before, not after, a claim makes the gap expensive.
Worked example — a clearance that lapsed without a single missed payment by the building (illustrative)
A property manager pulls a WSIB clearance for a roofing contractor at the start of a 140-day re-roofing project and files it. No reminder is set because the manager assumes, like most people do, that the clearance covers the job until it finishes.
On day 95, the clearance has lapsed — not because the building missed anything, but because the roofing contractor fell behind on its own WSIB reporting mid-project, which stopped the automatic renewal. Nobody at the building notices until an unrelated site audit flags it on day 130.
For those 35 days, the building owner had no valid clearance in effect and was exposed to the contractor’s unpaid WSIB obligations up to the labour value of the roofing contract — a real gap that a 15-day-before-expiry calendar reminder, tied to the 90-day cycle rather than the project end date, would have caught before it opened.
Related reading: making clearance and insurance currency a scored criterion, not a filing task, confirming a vendor file transfers intact through a management change and the other compliance clocks a building has to track alongside this one.
Up to 90 days, and it covers all of a contractor’s contracts, not just the one it was pulled for — a job running longer than 90 days needs the clearance re-pulled during the project, not just at signing.
Only while the contractor stays current on its WSIB payments and reporting. If the contractor falls behind, the clearance is not regenerated, and nothing prompts the building to check unless a reminder system is already in place.
WSIB’s operational policy states the principal may become liable for the contractor’s unpaid premiums, up to the labour portion of the contract value between them.
No. It shows a policy existed as of the date the certificate was issued. Whether the policy is still active, and whether the building actually holds additional-insured status, both depend on documents the certificate itself does not typically reproduce.
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