Contractor safety compliance is under fresh scrutiny in Canada after a hotel operator was fined more than $624,000 by WorkSafeBC following a renovation where workers were exposed to asbestos and lead without training, certification, respiratory protection or containment measures in place.

The case is a reminder that facilities managers rarely do renovation work themselves. It is contractors, and sometimes subcontractors several layers removed, who are actually on site handling the risk. If a hotel, hospital, school or plant does not verify who it has hired, and what that contractor is qualified to do, the liability does not stay with the contractor alone.

The operational challenge is visibility. Many facilities teams manage contractor documents, from asbestos training certificates to method statements, across email threads and shared folders, with no easy way to confirm everything is current before work begins.

FlexManager’s contractor manager and contractor pre qualification tools centralise that verification, requiring certifications and risk assessments to be current before a contractor is approved for site. The chemical library and environmental audits modules add a documented record for hazardous materials handling, while reporting gives facilities managers visibility across every active site.

So before your next renovation starts, could you confirm every contractor’s certifications are valid, right now? If that answer is not a confident yes, book a demo at and see contractor compliance made visible before work begins.