What Alberta crews carry, and how long it usually runs.
Validity is set by the issuing body, and owners can demand more than the issuer does. The card in the worker's wallet is the source; the list below is what to expect.
- CSTS 2020. Construction Safety Training System. The current version does not expire. The older CSTS-09 was retired; many owners no longer accept it.
- Fall Protection. Commonly three years. Task-specific in Alberta: the course has to match the work (for example, working from a boom lift versus leading-edge work).
- Standard First Aid with CPR. Three years. Alberta's first aid requirements set how many holders a site needs by crew size and distance from care.
- H2S Alive. Three years. Required on most oil and gas sites regardless of the trade.
- Ground Disturbance Level 2. Commonly three years. Required for anyone supervising or performing a disturbance near buried facilities.
- Confined Space Entry and Monitor. Commonly three years. Entrant, attendant and rescue roles may need separate training.
- WHMIS 2015. No fixed expiry in law. The employer decides when retraining is needed; many companies refresh it yearly and most owners ask for a recent date.
- Transportation of Dangerous Goods. Commonly three years. Needed by whoever handles, offers for transport or transports the goods.
- Aerial work platform, forklift, telehandler. Commonly three years. Equipment-specific; a forklift ticket is not a telehandler ticket.
Four ways a tracked ticket still lapses.
- 01
The renewal overwrote the record
The worker renewed in June. Someone typed the new date over the old one. Now there is no evidence the worker was current last April, when the incident happened.
- 02
Two rows for one worker
A first aid card from 2023 and one from 2026 both sit on the sheet. The report counts the 2023 one as expired and the worker as non-compliant, and the office stops trusting the report.
- 03
The date lived in one person's head
The safety coordinator knew. The safety coordinator was on holiday when the owner's gate checked.
- 04
The card was never seen
The worker said they had it. The sheet says they have it. The card, when finally asked for, is from a course that the owner does not accept.
Six rules for a certification record.
- One record per worker per ticket type. The newest expiry is the one that counts; the older ones stay as history.
- The photo of the card is attached to the record, both sides, dates legible.
- Issue date, expiry date and issuer are typed from the card, not from memory.
- Alerts at 90 days, 30 days and on the day, sent to the office and to the worker.
- The job's required tickets are checked against the crew before the crew is assigned, not after.
- Renewals are added, never overwritten. The audit question is always about a date in the past.
Read the card with the phone. The rest follows.
In Rate, a supervisor photographs a ticket and the app reads the worker's name, the course, the issue and expiry dates from the card and files them against the roster. Each worker has one line per ticket type with the latest expiry, and the history underneath. Alerts go out before a lapse to the channels the company chose. When a job is created with required tickets, the roster is checked before workers are assigned, and the office sees who is short and by what.
Whether a given course satisfies a given owner or regulation is the employer's call, with their certifying partner and qualified Alberta counsel where it matters. The software's job is to make sure the question gets asked before the gate does.
Certification questions contractors ask
Who is responsible when a worker's ticket has lapsed?
The employer is responsible for ensuring a worker is competent for the work and holds the training the work requires. A lapsed ticket on an active worker is the employer's finding in an audit and the employer's problem in an incident. The worker is responsible for telling the employer and for renewing, but the duty to check sits with the company.
Does a photo of the card count as a record?
A legible photo of both sides of the card, with the issue and expiry dates readable, is the record most certifying partners and owners accept. Keep it attached to the worker, not in a shared camera roll.
How far ahead should an alert fire?
Far enough to book a course. Ninety days for anything that fills up (first aid, fall protection in spring), thirty days for the rest, and again on the day it lapses so the roster stops showing the worker as current.
What about tickets from another province?
Some transfer, some do not, and owners set their own rules. Record the issuer and the standard the course met, and check with the owner before the worker mobilizes.
Related official information: Alberta OHS Act, Regulation and Code and Alberta first aid requirements.