Nova Scotia COR safety manual template
A complete written health and safety program for Nova Scotia construction employers, laid out section by section on the Construction Safety Nova Scotia (CSNS) COR audit and written to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations and the Occupational Safety General Regulations. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own: your name, your logo, your job titles and your work.
A look inside
Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.
What’s in the manual
1. Safety and health policy
A signed, dated policy with everything the Act asks it to say, reviewed every year with the committee or representative, the written program and what it must contain, and responsibilities for management, supervisors, employees, the committee or representative, constructors, subcontractors and visitors under the Internal Responsibility System.
2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control
Formal and site-specific hazard assessments, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, critical tasks, controls in order with a person and a date for each, and the assessments Nova Scotia law requires by name, psychological hazards included.
3. Safe work practices
Twelve starter practices for common construction work: site conduct, ladders, working at heights, tools, lifting, mobile equipment, silica, working alone, heat and cold, WHMIS, temporary power and excavations, each ending with the Nova Scotia legislation that applies.
4. Safe job procedures
Step-by-step procedures for six critical tasks, from lockout and fall arrest to entering a trench and hoisting, and a table of the written procedures and plans the law requires, from the fall-protection safe-work plan to the confined space entry procedure.
5. Company safety rules
Written company and site rules and a progressive discipline process that is applied the same way every time and never used as a reprisal against an employee for exercising their rights.
6. Personal protective equipment
The work that needs PPE and how it is chosen, fit, care and use of harnesses, respirators and hearing protection, training and inspection.
7. Preventative maintenance program
An equipment inventory, maintenance to manufacturer and regulation standards, maintenance records, who may do the work, and taking defective equipment out of service until it is re-certified.
8. Training and communication
Orientation before work starts, the training the law requires, from fall protection and first aid to WHMIS and the harassment policy, job-specific and supervisor training, competency checks, safety meetings and toolbox talks.
9. Inspections
The inspection schedule your program sets and the inspections the regulations require, the forms and pre-use checklists used, who inspects, committee inspections, and correcting and sharing what is found.
10. Investigations and reporting
What must be reported to the Director immediately or within 24 hours, including a fall where fall protection was required, leaving the scene undisturbed, the WCB Injury Report within two business days, near misses, investigations, corrective action and management review.
11. Emergency preparedness
Emergency plans for each site, equipment, training and roles, drills, fire response, and first aid under the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations: workplace first aiders and kits by travel time and employees per shift, and the isolated workplace first aid plan.
12. Statistics, records and document control
Document control and records retention, leading and lagging indicators, year-over-year trends, first aid records and audit action plans.
13. Legislation
Written so employees and supervisors can answer the auditor’s interview questions: the law on site, their rights, refusing unsafe work step by step, protection from reprisal, and reporting to the Occupational Health and Safety Division.
14. Procurement and contractor management
Choosing and monitoring subcontractors and service providers, the constructor’s duties when several employers share a project, and buying products safely.
15. Nova Scotia supplement
Everything CSNS’s provincial supplement checks: the joint occupational health and safety committee or representative and how it runs, an environmental policy, required postings, yearly supervisor health and safety evaluations, a return-to-work policy and program, and mental health, with a workplace harassment prevention policy written out in full.
Appendix A. COR cross-reference
Every one of the 87 documentation questions in the CSNS COR audit, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records. Questions that don’t apply to a small business are marked. Each entry links to its section.
Appendix B. Forms
30 print-ready forms that match the manual, each on one page with a form code: policy review, hazard assessments, critical tasks, procedures, discipline, PPE, maintenance, orientation, training, meetings, inspections, incidents, investigations, emergencies, statistics, work refusals, contractors, products, committee meetings, supervisor evaluations and return-to-work plans.
Built around the CSNS COR audit
The manual follows Construction Safety Nova Scotia’s COR Audit Instrument (FM 9.17, June 2026) in the same order: the 14 harmonized national sections, then the provincial supplement, which covers the committee or representative, the environment, postings, supervisor evaluations, return to work and mental health. Each has its own section.
The audit scores documents, interviews and observations. This manual answers each of the 87 documentation questions in writing, and Appendix A shows where, marking the questions CSNS doesn’t apply to a small business of 2 to 4 people. The 62 interview questions and 29 observations are passed by your people doing what the manual says, so the supplement and section 13, Legislation, say plainly what the site must show and what employees must know. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to. What it gives you is a complete, audit-shaped program to put in place.
Written to Nova Scotia law as it stands
Every requirement is cited to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations, the Occupational Safety General Regulations, the Workers’ Compensation Act or the Labour Standards Code, checked against the official consolidations current in September 2026. That includes the harassment prevention policy every employer has needed since September 2025, psychological health and safety in the Act, and the WCB Injury Report now due in two business days. Nothing in it is borrowed from another province’s rules.
Where the law sets no number, such as how often to hold toolbox talks, the manual says so and gives you a highlighted default to set yourself. When the law changes, we update the template and you get the new edition free.
Who it is for
Nova Scotia construction employers working toward COR with CSNS. It is also the written occupational health and safety policy the Act requires once 5 or more employees are regularly employed, and the written program it requires at 20 or more.
If you are working toward certification with another safety association, check the manual against that association’s own audit tool.
Lifetime updates
When legislation or the audit 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 1, 2026
- First edition, laid out on Construction Safety Nova Scotia’s COR Audit Instrument FM 9.17 (June 2026), provincial supplement included.
- Written to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations and the Occupational Safety General Regulations as consolidated in September 2026.
Working in more than one province?
Buy templates together and save on the whole order: 2 for 10% off, 3 for 15% off, 4+ for 20% off.
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Questions
What format is the manual in?
An editable Microsoft Word (.docx) file on US Letter pages. It works best in desktop Word for Windows or Mac. It also opens in Google Docs and Word on the web, where you use Find and replace to put your company name in.
Will this manual get us COR?
It gives you the written program the COR audit reviews, laid out on the CSNS audit, with every documentation question answered and cross-referenced. Certification also depends on your records, employee interviews and what the auditor observes on site, so no template can promise a pass. If you want help putting it in place, or a gap analysis before your audit, our team does that too.
Does it include a harassment prevention policy?
Yes. Since September 1, 2025 every Nova Scotia employer, whatever its size, must have a written workplace harassment prevention policy, train employees in it and review it at least every three years. The manual has one written out with every element the Workplace Health and Safety Regulations require, ready for your names and contacts.
Do I need a written safety policy and program in Nova Scotia?
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, an employer with 5 or more employees regularly employed needs a written occupational health and safety policy, reviewed every year, and at 20 or more a written occupational health and safety program. A constructor counts only the employees it employs directly. COR requires a documented program whatever your size.
How do I get the file after I pay?
Your download is on the confirmation page the moment payment goes through, and we email you a download link as well.
What happens when the legislation or the audit changes?
We update the template, and you get every update free for as long as we publish it: lifetime updates at no extra charge. We email you when a new edition is ready, with what changed and a link to download it.
Does it work with TruStar Connect?
Yes. The manual rates risk on the same 5 × 5 matrix TruStar Connect uses for its hazard register and investigations, so if you run your program in Connect, your ratings, bands and actions carry straight over.
Can I use it for more than one company?
Each purchase is licensed to one company. Consultants setting up programs for several clients should contact us.
Want it built for you?
Our safety advisors tailor programs to your operations and take you through COR from gap analysis to audit day.
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