Does my roofer need WorkSafeBC coverage or a clearance letter?

In our reading, demand for roofers in Greater Victoria runs ahead of the supply of established firms most summers, and that gap tends to be filled by new outfits, subcontracted crews and one-van operators. Some are excellent; a few are not registered anywhere, and a one-van operator with no employees is not required to be, which is a different thing from a company with a crew that should be and is not. On a Fairfield or Oak Bay job where a crew is on a 12/12 pitch for a week, the question of who covers a fall is not theoretical, and a clearance letter is the cheapest piece of due diligence available.

Subcontracting is the local wrinkle. A well-known company may sell the job and hand the roof to a subcontracted crew, which appears common on the West Shore in peak season. Ask whether the people on your roof are the contractor's own employees or a subcontractor, and if the latter, ask for the subcontractor's clearance letter too. A homeowner in Langford or Colwood who does not know the name of the crew on their roof cannot check its coverage.

A clearance letter is a statement from WorkSafeBC that a named employer is registered and its account is current as of the date on the letter. It tells you the company is inside the system: its workers are covered for injury and it is subject to the fall-protection rules. It does not tell you the crew is competent, that the company is insured for damage to your house, or that the person quoting owns the company. Those are the other documents.

Letters are dated. One from last year says little about this summer; ask for a current one when you sign and again if the start date slips by months.

A one-person roofer with no employees may not have one, and that is not automatically a red flag: WorkSafeBC does not require sole proprietors or partners without workers to register. They can buy optional personal coverage for their own wage loss and medical costs. Ask whether they have it, and ask for their liability insurance, because if they are hurt on your roof with neither, there is no WorkSafeBC coverage behind them and the question of who pays becomes a live one. If that solo operator turns up with a helper, they are an employer and the registration requirement applies to them.

WorkSafeBC's regulation makes fall protection mandatory at 3 metres, the height of a single-storey eave, and requires personal fall protection or a net on any slope of 8/12 or steeper. Roofing is the trade those rules are aimed at, and the hazards are exactly what you see from the sidewalk: ladders on uneven ground, wet plywood, unguarded eaves and skylight openings. A company that is registered has a financial reason to do it properly; one that should be registered and is not has passed the cost of an accident to whoever is standing nearest, and WorkSafeBC notes that a homeowner who hires unregistered workers can take on employer-like responsibilities.

Roofers also carry heavy materials up, work with torches on flat sections and cut metal on site. The coverage question is not only about falls.

Make it routine and make it early.

• Put it in the first email: 'Please include a current WorkSafeBC clearance letter and insurance certificate with your quote'
• Compare the legal name on the letter with the name on the quote and the invoice
• Ask whether the crew are employees; if a subcontractor, ask for their letter as well
• For a one-person operator with no employees, ask instead whether they carry WorkSafeBC personal coverage and liability insurance; if they bring a helper, they are an employer and the clearance letter applies
• Keep copies with the contract, the warranty and the final invoice
• Treat reluctance as a data point; established Victoria firms produce these documents routinely