All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Janitorial and commercial cleaning safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for janitorial and commercial cleaning contractors doing office, institutional, retail and industrial cleaning, post-construction clean-up, floor care, low-level windows and day porter services, wherever in Canada the client’s building is. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: client site rules, keys and alarms, cleaning chemicals and safety data sheets, dilution systems and never mixing products, wet floors, ladders and step stools, floor machines, propane burnishers and carbon monoxide, cords and wet areas, mopping and manual handling, garbage and compactors, sharps and needles, washrooms and body fluids, clinics and schools, working alone at night, intruders and harassment, post-construction dust and newcomer and part-time workers. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s WHMIS label and safety data sheet rules, working alone and check-in, violence risk assessment, ladders, and the duties shared by the contractor and the building owner. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and company name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on working across Canada

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for cleaners, floor technicians and night workers, chemicals shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's WHMIS, working alone, violence, ladder and building owner rules

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready plans and forms: the working alone check-in plan shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A signed, dated policy, the written program, and responsibilities for management, area supervisors, lead hands, cleaners, floor technicians, window cleaners and day porters, and what we expect of each client.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by type of building and task, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the client site hazard assessment and orientation.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for cleaners: client sites, keys and alarms, chemicals and WHMIS, dilution and never mixing, wet floors, ladders, floor machines, propane burnishers, electrical safety, mopping and lifting, garbage, sharps, washrooms, clinics and schools, working alone at night, intruders and harassment, post-construction clean-up, low windows, weather, driving and newcomer workers.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for diluting a concentrate, cleaning up a chemical spill, stripping and refinishing a floor, running a propane burnisher indoors, picking up a needle, cleaning up body fluids, starting and ending a night shift alone, and responding to an intruder.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for cleaning (never mix products, a label on every bottle, hands never in a garbage bag, check in on time, never confront an intruder), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

Chemical gloves and eye protection chosen from the safety data sheet, slip-resistant footwear, and gloves and tongs for sharps and body fluids.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Floor machines and auto scrubbers, propane burnishers and their emissions tests, cords and plugs, ladders and dispensing systems.

8. Training and communication

WHMIS, chemical handling, floor machines, sharps and body fluids, working alone and violence prevention, in plain language and the worker’s own language where needed.

9. Inspections

Site inspections, floor machines checked before use, chemical rooms and safety data sheets checked, and night shift check-ins monitored.

10. Investigations and reporting

Chemical exposures, slips and falls, needlesticks, violent incidents and near misses reported and investigated, and reporting never costs anyone a job.

11. Emergency preparedness

A chemical splash, a missed check-in, an intruder, a needlestick, a fire alarm in an empty building, and first aid for workers alone.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Site assessments, chemical inventories and safety data sheets, working alone plans, violence risk assessments and exposure reports, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, WHMIS, working alone and violence rules, ladder standards, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

What the client must tell us about its building, shared buildings and other contractors, and buying chemicals and equipment.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, WHMIS labels and safety data sheets, working alone and check-in, violence risk assessment, ladders, the owner’s and contractor’s duties, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

37 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the client site hazard assessment and orientation, chemical inventory and safety data sheet checklist, floor machine inspection, working alone check-in plan, sharps and body fluid exposure report and site violence risk assessment.

Written for the work, not just the province

Cleaners are hurt by chemicals mixed in a bucket, wet floors, needles in garbage and being alone in somebody else’s building at night. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure, in plain words for newcomer and part-time workers.

Every worker alone at night has a written check-in plan, and every client building gets its own violence risk assessment.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the building is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Janitorial and commercial cleaning contractors: offices, schools, clinics, retail and industrial buildings, post-construction clean-up, floor care, low-level windows and day porters. Industrial cleaning with water jetting has its own manual, and rope access and high-rise windows are out of scope.

A template is a starting point, not legal advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your sites and the provinces you work in before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 30, 2026
- First edition, written for janitorial and commercial cleaning contractors and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the WHMIS, working alone, violence risk assessment, ladder and building owner rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 29 October 2026.