Free Health and Safety Resources
Checklists, policy templates and official Ontario resources to help small businesses and contractors meet their health and safety requirements. Free to use, and built from 35 years of real-world safety experience.
What Ontario Requires, by Workplace Size
A quick guide to the basics under the Occupational Health and Safety Act. Requirements add up as your business grows.
Every workplace
- Post a copy of the Occupational Health and Safety Act.
- Post the Health & Safety at Work: Prevention Starts Here poster.
- If you're covered by the WSIB, post the In Case of Injury poster (Form 82).
1 or more workers
- Every worker completes basic health and safety awareness training.
- Everyone who supervises a worker completes basic supervisor health and safety awareness training.
- Provide a first aid kit and have at least one worker trained in first aid.
- Teach workers the hazards of their job and how to do it safely. Hiring roofers? Jobsite Ready: Roofer covers this in about 2 hours.
- Give each new employee the Employment Standards poster within 30 days of hire.
6 or more regularly employed workers
- Write, post and review each year your health and safety policy, workplace violence policy and workplace harassment policy. Use our free templates below.
- Put programs in place to carry out your violence and harassment policies.
- Workers select a health and safety representative (6 to 19 workers). At 20 or more, you need a joint health and safety committee.
This is a starting point, not legal advice. Your industry may have additional requirements.
Required Postings and Free Policy Templates
Download what you need to post in your workplace, and start your written policies from our templates.
Required workplace postings
Post these where workers can easily see them, or in an electronic format workers can readily access at work.
- Health & Safety at Work: Prevention Starts Here poster (Ontario)
- In Case of Injury or Illness at Work poster, Form 82 (WSIB)
- Occupational Health and Safety Act, printable copy (Ontario)
- Employment Standards poster: give a copy to each employee within 30 days of hire (Ontario)
Free policy templates (Word)
Required in writing once you have 6 or more regularly employed workers. Edit each template to fit your business, sign it, post it and review it every year.
- Health and Safety Policy template
- Workplace Violence Policy template
- Workplace Harassment Policy template
Government resources are free from Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development and the WSIB. Always check the linked source for the latest version.
Free Supervisor Awareness Training
Anyone who supervises a worker in Ontario must complete basic supervisor health and safety awareness training.
Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development offers this training free, online or as a printable workbook. It covers the basics every supervisor needs to know about their legal duties.
- Supervisor Health and Safety Awareness in 5 Steps, free e-learning
- Supervisor Health and Safety Awareness in 5 Steps, printable workbook (PDF)
Keep a record of each supervisor's completion. The e-learning provides a certificate you can print or save.
Training new workers? The ministry's basic awareness training covers the minimum. Jobsite Ready courses add the job-specific hazards and safe work practices for each trade.
Get the Free Small Business Safety Checklist
Built for Ontario businesses with fewer than 20 workers, it helps you keep track of the requirements on this page. Leave your email and we'll send it to you, plus early access to the Jobsite Ready Health and Safety Bulletin Board when it launches.