Understanding WSIB: What Ontario Homeowners Need to Know

The Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) is Ontario's workplace insurance system. For homeowners hiring contractors, understanding WSIB is not optional — it is essential for your financial protection.

What Is WSIB?

WSIB provides no-fault workplace insurance for Ontario workers. When a worker is injured on the job, WSIB covers their medical expenses, lost wages, and rehabilitation costs. In exchange, workers give up the right to sue their employer for workplace injuries.

Why Homeowners Should Care

Here is the point most homeowners miss: if someone working on your home is injured and isn't covered by WSIB, they may look to you, as the property owner, for compensation. That can mean a claim for:

When the contractor has WSIB coverage, an injured worker receives WSIB benefits instead.

How to Verify WSIB Coverage

Before any work begins, ask the contractor for their WSIB clearance certificate. WSIB does not require you to get one when you hire a contractor for repairs or renovations to the home you live in, but it is the simplest proof that coverage is in place. You can also verify their status directly:

ProScore checks WSIB registration against WSIB records, and where it has matched a business, the profile says so. A registration a business only declares is labelled self-declared. Either way, a registration is not a clearance certificate, so ask for the certificate.

Which Contractors Need WSIB?

In Ontario, most construction businesses must have WSIB coverage, and in construction that includes independent operators working on their own. The exception that matters to homeowners: a business that does only home renovation work, hired and paid directly by the homeowner or resident, is exempt from coverage for its owners, though it must still cover any employees. So a small renovation business can lawfully have no coverage for the person doing your work. Hiring a contractor with WSIB coverage still protects you.

The Bottom Line

WSIB verification takes five minutes. The financial consequences of skipping it can last years. Where ProScore holds a WSIB record for a contractor, the profile shows it, which is a good place to start. The clearance certificate is what protects you, so ask for it before work begins.

Compare scored contractors at proscore.ca.