Register for workers compensation in Canada, province by province: who must register, the deadline in each province and territory — 10 days in Ontario, 15 in Alberta and New Brunswick, 30 in Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador, 60 in Quebec — classification, payroll reporting, clearance letters, and injury reporting.
Applies in: across Canada
Workers compensation in Canada is provincial, not federal. There is no Canadian registration, no single form, and no single deadline. Each province and territory has its own board — WSIB in Ontario, WorkSafeBC in British Columbia, CNESST in Quebec, a Workers Compensation Board or Workers Safety and Compensation Commission everywhere else — and you register with the board where the work happens, on that board's deadline, counted from the first worker's first day.
The pattern underneath is the same everywhere: if you hire workers in a mandatory industry, you must register, you must pay premiums based on your payroll and your industry classification, you must report payroll every year, and you must report injuries within days. What differs is the deadline, who counts as a worker, which industries are exempt, and how the board punishes late registration. Get the deadline for your province right, register before it passes, and never assume a registration in one province covers work in another.
This guide is the employer-side companion to the payroll guide: payroll covers the CRA account, deductions, and remittances; this guide covers the board account, the classification, the premiums, and the injury report. You need both when you hire your first worker.
Most industries are mandatory. A smaller set is exempt in each province, and exempt employers can usually register voluntarily — Alberta calls them exempt industries and says they can voluntarily apply, Saskatchewan says firms in excluded industries are not required by law to register but may voluntarily apply, and Manitoba offers optional coverage for industries that are not legislated to carry it. The exempt list is province-specific: an industry exempt in one province can be mandatory in the next, so never carry an exemption across a provincial border.
If you are unsure, apply and ask. Alberta's board says exactly that: if you are not sure whether you are in an exempt industry, apply for an account or contact the board to find out. Ontario's board offers a questionnaire for the same question. The cost of asking is nothing; the cost of guessing wrong is retroactive premiums and penalties, and in some provinces liability for the full cost of a claim that happened while you were unregistered.
Three groups are routinely misunderstood. First, the owner of an unincorporated business with no workers is generally not automatically covered and is not required to register, but can buy optional or personal coverage. Second, an incorporated company is different: British Columbia requires registration for an active incorporated company even where the only workers are shareholders, and Newfoundland and Labrador requires an incorporated business to register even if the owner is the only worker. Third, hiring a contractor does not automatically keep you outside the system — a contractor who fails the board's business test is deemed your worker, which is why Step 5 exists.
Register in every province or territory where workers work. The deadlines below were verified on board or board-policy pages, except where the guide says plainly that no day-count was found. Where no day-count was found, the guide says so rather than inventing one — register at hiring and confirm the deadline with the board the same week.
British Columbia. If you hire workers, you are required by law to register with WorkSafeBC. That includes incorporated companies that employ only their shareholders, and individuals who hire family members. The application is Form 1800, the Employer's Registration Application, completed online or on paper. No day-count deadline was published on the registration pages checked for this guide, and there is no grace period to rely on: register before the first worker starts, because the obligation attaches when you become an employer. Proprietors and partners who want coverage for themselves use Form 180C, and people who are not automatically covered can apply for Personal Optional Protection.
Alberta. If you operate in a mandatory industry, you must open a WCB-Alberta account within 15 days of hiring your first worker. A worker includes anyone working full-time, part-time, temporary or casual, contract or subcontract unless they maintain their own WCB account, and volunteers or unpaid workers including family members, for a for-profit employer in a compulsory industry. Exempt industries can apply voluntarily. If you stop employing workers, notify WCB within 10 days with a statement of wages.
Saskatchewan. All businesses covered under the Act must be registered within 30 days of hiring workers or contractors. The rule covers firms in a mandatory industry, firms that employ and pay workers on a regular, casual, or contract basis, incorporated firms whose directors report employment income on a T4, and firms from another province or country that meet Saskatchewan requirements. Registration itself carries no charge in a mandatory industry, but there is a minimum account fee of $100 per year. Workers in a mandatory industry are covered even if you do not yet have a policy number.
Manitoba. If you employ workers in Manitoba, register. The board's registration page publishes no day-count deadline — it asks for the date workers were or will be hired, and follows up with the industry classification, premium rate, and payroll-reporting instructions. Register when you hire, do not wait for a deadline figure that the board page does not state, and confirm the timing with Assessment Services if the hire date is already past. In a mandatory industry, everyone who works for the business is considered a worker regardless of hours, pay structure, or nature of work, including contract workers, domestic service workers, family members, and apprentices. If you do not employ workers in Manitoba, you are not required to have coverage, and owners and self-employed people can buy Personal Coverage.
Ontario. Most businesses that employ workers must contact WSIB and provide information about their operations within 10 calendar days of the date the first worker begins employment, and provide a completed registration form by the final day of the month following the month in which the first worker began employment — a worker who starts in June means registration due by the end of July. That two-step rule is stated in WSIB's registration policy. It covers full- and part-time workers including family members and subcontractors. Sole owners, partners, independent operators, and executive officers are not automatically covered but can apply for optional insurance. Construction has its own expanded compulsory coverage rules, so a construction employer should check the construction policy rather than relying on the general rule alone.
Quebec. Every employer with at least one full-time or part-time worker must register with CNESST, no later than 60 days following the first day the first worker reports to work. Registration is through CNESST's online registration form. If you hire a self-employed person, that person may be considered a worker for CNESST purposes where the work is similar to or related to your business and reaches 420 hours or more a year — ask CNESST to decide rather than deciding yourself. Company executives are not automatically insured and can take out optional personal insurance.
New Brunswick. Employers who are required to have mandatory coverage must register with WorkSafeNB within 15 days of workers beginning their employment, and must notify WorkSafeNB within 15 days of ceasing or suspending the business. Workers may be full-time, part-time, casual, or non-registered contractors, subcontractors, or brokers. The application asks for an estimate of assessable earnings for the calendar year, and the business description is used to determine the assessment rate code, so describe the business in detail.
Nova Scotia. Registration is mandatory for an employer in a mandatory industry with three or more workers at one time, and registration is required within 10 days of hiring the third worker. That three-worker threshold is the rule that most often surprises a small employer: one or two workers do not trigger it, the third does. An out-of-province business doing business in Nova Scotia needs coverage if it works in a mandatory industry and has three or more workers in the province for five days or more in a calendar year. If you are at two workers and hiring a third, the 10-day clock starts with the third hire, not with the business start.
Prince Edward Island. Register through the WCB's online services portal or on the paper registration form, reporting an estimate of payroll for the current year with actual payroll from the previous year. No initial day-count deadline was verified on a board page for this guide — register when you hire. The deadline that is verified is the annual one: registration must be renewed by February 28 each year, reporting actual payroll for the previous year and estimated payroll for the current year, and missing it brings an arbitrary assessment, interest, and late-filing penalties, with the arbitrary assessment set by adjusting the previous year's payroll upward by 25%.
Newfoundland and Labrador. The registration application must be completed and signed by an owner, director, or authorized signing officer and returned to WorkplaceNL within 30 days of becoming an employer. WorkplaceNL determines whether the employer operates in an industry within the scope of the Act, assigns a Newfoundland Industry Classification code and assessment rate from the business description given, and in most cases sets the effective date of registration as the date the employer first employed workers in an in-scope industry. An incorporated business must register even if the owner is the only worker; a non-incorporated business with only the proprietor or partners as workers is not required to register unless it hires a worker or subcontracts work. Proprietors, partners, and independent operators can apply for Optional Personal Coverage.
Yukon. An employer must register within 10 days of the date they commence employing workers in Yukon, on the board's registration form, giving the legal name, contact details, directors and officers, nature of business and location, average number of workers and their start date, and estimated total payroll for the calendar year. There is a minimum assessment premium of $150. A non-Yukon employer carrying on business in Yukon on a temporary basis does not have to register, and its workers are not covered under the Yukon Act — confirm temporary status with the board before relying on it.
Northwest Territories and Nunavut. One board, the Workers Safety and Compensation Commission, covers both territories. If you operate a business in either territory for more than 10 days within a calendar year, you must register with the WSCC — even if another board advises it will extend coverage for work in the territories. The WSCC offers online registration and says you should hear back within three business days. The 10-day figure is an operating threshold, not a filing deadline measured from the first hire: once you cross it, registration is required, so register before the work reaches 10 days rather than after.
The board classifies your business from what you do, not from what you call it. Manitoba assigns each business to an industry classification based on its main business activity — the service or product it charges customers for — and other boards work the same way: WorkSafeBC places the business in a classification unit based on products, services, processes, technology, and materials; WorkplaceNL assigns its classification code from the business description in the registration application; WorkSafeNB determines the assessment rate code from the detailed business description. Describe the actual work, including the riskiest work, and update the board if the business changes what it does. A business with more than one distinct activity can carry more than one classification.
Your first premium is an estimate. Every board asks for an estimated payroll for the calendar year at registration, then corrects it against actual payroll at year end. Give an honest estimate and revise it during the year when hiring changes: Yukon charges an administrative fee where actual payroll exceeds 125% of the estimate, Prince Edward Island penalizes underestimation by more than 25%, and Saskatchewan estimates your assessable payroll itself if you do not provide payroll information, and that estimate binds you until you supply the real figures. Premiums are the classification rate applied to assessable payroll, capped at a maximum assessable earnings figure per worker that each board sets annually. No rate is quoted in this guide, because the rate belongs to the classification and the year, and the figure that matters is the one on your board's rate page for the year in front of you. Two verified minimums are worth knowing at the small end: Saskatchewan's minimum account fee is $100 per year, and Yukon's minimum assessment premium is $150.
The employer pays. Premiums are not deducted from workers' pay, in any province checked. Keep payroll records that reconcile to the board's payroll report, because the annual report, the premium calculation, and any audit all start from the same payroll figures as the CRA payroll account — and the board and the CRA are different accounts, with different deadlines, even though they share the business number as an identifier.
Annual payroll reporting is a separate obligation from registration, and it repeats whether or not anything changed. The common pattern is a report by the last day of February covering the previous year's actual payroll and the current year's estimate: Saskatchewan's Employer's Payroll Statement is due February 28, Manitoba requires payroll reporting each year before the last day of February, Yukon's Employer Payroll Return is due February 28 (February 29 in a leap year), the WSCC Annual Payroll Report is due February 28, and Prince Edward Island's renewal is due February 28. Ontario differs: the WSIB annual reconciliation is due the last day of March. Quebec differs: the CNESST payroll statement is due before March 15 each year. WorkSafeBC's pattern is quarterly or yearly reporting depending on the account, with the yearly payroll report window running March 1 to 15 — confirm which reporting cycle your account carries when you register, because the board's letter, not this guide, sets your date.
File even at zero. Saskatchewan requires the payroll statement even if the business closed, was sold, has no workers, or no longer wants coverage; the WSCC requires an Annual Payroll Report even at zero payroll or after ceasing work in the jurisdiction. Late filing brings its own penalties on top of late payment: Yukon charges $50 to $5,000 for a late or incomplete payroll return, and Prince Edward Island applies an arbitrary assessment plus interest and penalties. Put the board's date in the calendar beside the CRA's February T4 date — they fall in the same month in most provinces, and missing one while filing the other is the common failure.
Hiring a contractor does not automatically move the premium obligation to the contractor. If the contractor is not registered, is not in good standing, or fails the board's business test, the contractor's workers are treated as your workers and you pay premiums on the labour portion of the contract. The clearance letter is the document that prevents that surprise. It is issued by the board, names the contractor and its account status, and tells you whether you may pay.
The timing that protects you is before work starts and again before payment. Saskatchewan requires a clearance before making payment to a contractor, and a contractor with no account is deemed your worker; Alberta encourages clearance letters before work starts, during the contract, and before final payment, and a clearance is valid for work done up to the date of the letter, so a clearance must be requested again before each instalment payment; Manitoba says to get clearance information before work commences and before any payment is made, and a firm that is not in good standing can be deemed your worker. In every case, a clearance on hold means do not pay: Saskatchewan's board directs the principal not to issue payment until the board advises the status is cleared, and may request payment be made directly to the board from funds owed to the contractor. Make coverage a condition of the contract, request the clearance yourself rather than accepting a photocopy, and keep the clearance with the contract file. If the contractor is genuinely an independent business with its own account in good standing, the clearance proves it and you do not include their earnings in your payroll.
Injury reporting is the obligation with the shortest clock in this whole process, and it starts when you learn of the injury, not when the worker files a claim. The verified deadlines are: Ontario, three business days, with a copy of the employer's report to the injured worker; British Columbia, 72 hours of becoming aware of the injury or illness, with serious incidents and fatalities reported immediately by phone in addition; Alberta, 72 hours of learning of an injury that causes lost time, medical treatment beyond first aid, or a serious condition; Saskatchewan, five days of becoming aware, on the Employer's Initial Report of Injury; Manitoba, five business days from the injury or from learning of it, where the worker missed time or needed medical attention; Yukon, three working days. Nova Scotia's deadline is two days from January 1, 2026, changed from five. For New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, report as soon as you learn of the injury and confirm the deadline on your board's reporting page the same day — no deadline for those boards was verified on a board page for this guide, and an invented deadline would be worse than a stated gap.
First aid only, no time off, no pay effect, and no modified work beyond seven days is the usual threshold below which no board report is required — Ontario states it explicitly, and the other boards use equivalent lost-time or medical-treatment tests. When in doubt, report: Ontario's board recommends reporting when unsure whether an injury is work-related, because only the board decides that question. Keep a first-aid record and an incident record even for injuries you do not report, investigate what happened, and keep the worker's job open through the recovery: boards in every province run return-to-work programs, and the employer's part is modified work, communication with the board, and the progress reports the board sends. Never ask a worker to pay any part of a premium or a claim cost, and never discourage a report — in several provinces, failing to report is itself an offence.
Register now, and tell the board the true start date. Boards treat voluntary disclosure better than discovery: Ontario's board may waive penalties, refrain from investigating or laying charges, and require only retroactive premium, interest-free, from the effective date of registration, where an employer comes forward about non-compliance. What late registration does not do is erase the period before registration: premiums are assessed from when workers started, penalties apply as set out in Step 2's province notes, and where an injury occurred while unregistered, the employer can bear the claim cost. Do not backdate documents, do not estimate the start date favourably, and do not wait for the board to find you through a CRA data share — Ontario's board and the CRA share business information, and that share is a common way unregistered employers come to a board's attention.
If you are a sole proprietor, partner, or director with no workers, you are generally outside mandatory registration — and outside coverage. Every board checked offers a way back in: optional insurance in Ontario for sole owners, partners, independent operators, and executive officers; Personal Optional Protection in British Columbia for the self-employed, partners, and proprietors; voluntary coverage in Alberta for exempt industries; voluntary application in Saskatchewan for excluded industries; Personal Coverage in Manitoba for business owners and the self-employed; optional personal insurance in Quebec for company executives; Optional Personal Coverage in Newfoundland and Labrador for proprietors, partners, and independent operators. Coverage is bought at a chosen earnings level, renewed annually, and priced like a premium. If you work as a contractor for a principal who requires a clearance, optional or personal coverage is often what lets you hold your own account in good standing instead of being deemed the principal's worker. Price it against the contract: a clearance that depends on it is worth more than the premium.
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Generally no — registration follows hiring workers. A sole proprietor or partner with no workers is not automatically covered and does not have to register in most provinces, but can buy optional or personal coverage. The exception that catches people is the incorporated company: in British Columbia, an active incorporated company must register even if the only workers are its shareholders, and in Newfoundland and Labrador an incorporated business must register even if the owner is the only worker. Hiring one worker, including a family member or a casual worker, changes the answer in every province.
No. Each province and territory runs its own board and its own account, and coverage does not travel automatically. Saskatchewan's board says plainly that coverage may not carry over and to contact the board about the other province; the Northwest Territories and Nunavut board requires registration if you operate there for more than 10 days in a calendar year, even if another board says it will extend coverage. Register in every province or territory where workers work, and confirm the rule before the work starts, not after an injury.
Sometimes, and the contract label does not settle it. Boards apply a business test — direction and control, who supplies tools, ability to hire others, financial risk — and a contractor who fails it is deemed your worker, with the labour portion of the contract added to your payroll. The protection is a clearance letter: check the contractor is registered and in good standing before work starts and again before payment. In Saskatchewan a clearance is required before paying a contractor; in Alberta the board encourages clearance letters before work starts, during the contract, and before final payment; in Manitoba, check clearance status before work commences and before any payment is made.
The same core set everywhere: the legal name of the business, contact and mailing addresses, the business number if you have one, a description of what the business actually does, the date workers started or will start, and an estimate of payroll for the calendar year. Manitoba's board lists exactly that set for its online application. The business description matters most: the board classifies you from it, and the classification sets your rate, so describe the work precisely rather than in general terms.
Premiums are the board's rate for your classification multiplied by your assessable payroll, up to a maximum assessable earnings figure per worker that each board sets and revises annually — no single rate is quoted here because rates are classification-specific and change every year. The employer pays the premium. You may not deduct workers compensation premiums from a worker's pay: Alberta's Act prohibits it, Saskatchewan's board states employees cannot be charged premiums and premiums cannot be deducted from them, and Manitoba prohibits deductions from earnings to offset premiums. If a board estimates your payroll because you did not report it, that estimate binds you until you supply the real figures.
Premiums are charged retroactively to the date you should have registered, plus penalties that vary by board: Saskatchewan adds 5% of the premium assessed for each year of non-compliance, between $5 and $500 per year, and limits liability to the current plus preceding three years unless registration was intentionally avoided or an injury occurred; Yukon charges 10% of the premiums that would have been payable plus interest for late registration; and an employer whose worker is injured while unregistered can be charged up to the full cost of the claim in Yukon, and the full cost of injuries before registration in Saskatchewan where registration was intentionally avoided. Workers are still covered in mandatory industries even if you have not registered — the liability is yours, not theirs.
In most boards, yes. Ontario's rule covers full- and part-time workers including family members; Alberta counts full-time, part-time, temporary, casual, contract, volunteer, and unpaid workers including family members; Saskatchewan's rule covers workers hired on a regular, casual, or contract basis; and Manitoba treats everyone who works for a mandatory-industry business as a worker regardless of hours, pay structure, or nature of work, including contract workers, domestic service workers, family members, and apprentices. Volunteers for non-profit organizations are handled separately in several provinces — Manitoba offers coverage for volunteers of non-profit or charitable organizations that purchase it for all their volunteers — so confirm the volunteer rule with your board rather than assuming volunteers are outside the system.
A clearance letter from the board tells you, the principal hiring a contractor, whether that contractor is registered and in good standing, and releases you from paying amounts the contractor owes for the period it covers. Get one before the contractor starts and again before you pay: Saskatchewan requires a clearance before making payment to a contractor, and a contractor with no account is treated as your worker; Alberta encourages clearances before work starts, during the contract, and before final payment, and a clearance letter is valid for work done up to the date of the letter; Manitoba's board says to get clearance information before work commences and before any payment. If a clearance comes back on hold, do not pay the contractor until the board says the account is in good standing — in Saskatchewan the board may direct payment straight to the board from funds owed to the contractor.
On the board's clock, which is short everywhere it was verified: Ontario, within three business days of learning of the injury, with a copy of the report to the injured worker; British Columbia, within 72 hours of becoming aware of the injury or illness; Alberta, within 72 hours of learning of an injury that causes lost time, medical treatment beyond first aid, or a serious condition; Saskatchewan, an Employer's Initial Report of Injury within five days of becoming aware of the injury; Manitoba, within five business days from the date the worker was injured or the day the employer found out; Yukon, within three working days. Nova Scotia's deadline changed to two days from January 1, 2026. For New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, no injury-reporting deadline was verified on a board page for this guide — report as soon as you learn of the injury and confirm the deadline on your board's reporting page the same day.
Tell the board promptly, in the form it requires. New Brunswick requires notification within 15 days of ceasing or suspending the business, Alberta requires notification within 10 days of stopping employing workers with a statement of wages, and Prince Edward Island requires the account to be closed out when the business no longer has workers, is no longer operating, or has been sold. Annual payroll reporting does not stop on its own: Saskatchewan's board requires the payroll statement even if you have closed or sold the business or have no workers, and the Northwest Territories and Nunavut board requires an Annual Payroll Report even at zero payroll or after ceasing work in the jurisdiction. File the closing report, do not just stop filing.