Nunavut COR safety manual template
A complete written health and safety program for Nunavut construction employers, laid out section by section on the Northern Safety Association (NSA) COR audit and written to the Safety Act and the Occupational Health and Safety 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. Health and safety policy and responsibility
A signed, dated policy reviewed every year, the written occupational health and safety program the regulations require and its contents, the policies every employer needs whatever its size, and responsibilities for managers, supervisors, workers, the principal contractor, the Committee or representative, subcontractors and visitors.
2. Workplace hazard assessment and control
Formal hazard assessments for start-up, each type of work and each job or position, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, critical tasks, controls with a person and a date for each, ongoing site-specific assessments, and evaluating and monitoring subcontractors.
3. Safe work practices
Twelve starter practices for common construction work: site conduct, ladders, working at heights, tools, lifting, powered mobile equipment, silica, working alone, heat and cold, hazardous products, temporary power and overhead lines, and excavations, each ending with the Nunavut 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 every written program, plan and procedure Nunavut law requires.
5. Company rules
Written company and site rules given to every worker, and a progressive discipline process that is applied the same way every time and never used against a worker for exercising their rights.
6. Personal protective equipment
The work that needs PPE and how it is chosen, written procedures for fitting, care and use of specialized PPE, training, and inspection and maintenance.
7. Preventative maintenance
An inventory of facilities, tools, equipment and vehicles, maintenance schedules and records, who may do the work, and taking defective equipment out of service.
8. Training and communication
Orientation signed by the worker and the company before work starts and repeated every three years, the training and certifications the law requires, supervisor training including the approved regulatory familiarization program, safety meetings and toolbox talks.
9. Inspections
A written inspection procedure with a set frequency, standard checklists, who inspects, how workers report unsafe conditions, and correcting and sharing what is found.
10. Investigations and reporting
Notice to the Chief Safety Officer of accidents causing serious bodily injury and dangerous occurrences, the employer’s report to the WSCC within three days, near misses, investigations that find direct and indirect causes, corrective action and senior management review.
11. Emergency preparedness
Emergency plans for each site, equipment, roles, rescue and evacuation, testing, the written fire safety plan and yearly drill the regulations require, extinguishers, and first aid under Part 5 of the regulations: the first aid risk assessment, attendants, kits and the first aid register.
12. Records and statistics
Document control and the records the law gives a period to, health and safety activity summaries, year-over-year trends, and COR action plans that are shared and carried out.
13. Legislation
Written so workers and supervisors can answer the auditor’s interview questions: the law on site, their rights, refusing work step by step including the Committee stage, protection from discriminatory action, and the written harassment and violence policies the regulations require.
14. Return to work
A signed return-to-work policy, roles for the designated person, supervisors, the worker and the WSCC case manager, how suitable duties are found, injury reporting, the written safe return-to-work plan, staying in touch, and the yearly review.
15. Substance abuse prevention
An alcohol and drug policy that includes every element of the written impairment policy the regulations require, fitness-for-duty steps for supervisors, assessment and accommodation for a worker with a dependency, return to work, training, consequences and confidential support.
Appendix A. COR cross-reference
Every one of the 80 documentation questions in the NSA COR audit, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records. Each entry links to its section.
Appendix B. Forms
29 print-ready forms that match the manual, each on one page with a form code, from policy review and hazard assessments to subcontractor evaluation, a work refusal record, a safe return-to-work plan and a fitness-for-duty record.
Built around the NSA COR audit
The Northern Safety Association issues COR in Nunavut as well as the Northwest Territories, and it uses its own audit tool rather than the national harmonized one. This manual follows that tool section by section, all 15 of them, including its sections on return to work and substance abuse prevention.
The audit scores documents, interviews and observations, and NSA certification needs 80% overall. This manual answers each of the 80 documentation questions in writing, and Appendix A shows where. 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 Nunavut law as it stands
Every requirement is cited to the Safety Act, the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, the Workers’ Compensation Act, the Labour Standards Act or the Human Rights Act, read from Nunavut’s official texts. Nunavut kept the Safety Act it shared with the Northwest Territories, but its regulations and its other Acts differ in places, from fall-arrest anchor strengths to the smoking distance and the human rights rules, and this edition follows Nunavut’s. It uses the territory’s own terms (principal contractor, Joint Occupational Health and Safety Committee, Chief Safety Officer, accident causing serious bodily injury), and nothing in it is borrowed from another jurisdiction’s rules.
Where the law sets no number, such as how often to inspect or how long to keep most records, 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
Nunavut construction employers working toward COR with the NSA. It is also the written occupational health and safety program the regulations require at 20 or more workers at a work site, and it includes the written harassment, violence, impairment and fire safety policies every employer needs, whatever its size.
Working in the Northwest Territories too? The NSA audits there with the same tool, but the law is not the same, so we publish a separate Northwest Territories edition written to it.
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 the Northern Safety Association’s COR audit (v8), all 15 sections.
- Written to the Safety Act (consolidated to June 19, 2016) and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (R-003-2016, consolidated to September 28, 2021, with R-007-2025), with the Workers’ Compensation Act, Labour Standards Act and Human Rights Act.
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.
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 NSA 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 the return to work and substance abuse sections?
Yes. They are sections 14 and 15, written to what the NSA audit asks for. The manual is plain about the law: no Nunavut law requires a return-to-work program or regulates drug testing, and the NSA audit itself treats its testing question as not applicable in Nunavut. The regulations do require every employer to have a written impairment policy, and Nunavut’s Human Rights Act counts a dependency on alcohol or another drug as a disability, to be accommodated short of undue hardship. Both sections are built on that.
Do I need a written safety program in Nunavut?
Under the Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, an employer needs a written occupational health and safety program where 20 or more workers are at a work site, where a worker is exposed to noise above 85 dBA, or where the Chief Safety Officer directs it. Every employer, whatever its size, also needs written harassment, violence and impairment policies and a fire safety plan.
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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