How to Track Your Subcontractors' WCB Clearances in Manitoba (So Nothing Slips)
General information to help you keep your vendor paperwork organized. FORGE Vendor Desk does administrative document tracking only. We don't give legal, WCB, or insurance advice.
If your company hires subcontractors in Manitoba, there's a piece of paperwork that's easy to forget about until it costs you: the WCB clearance. Here's what it is, why it matters, and a simple way to keep it from slipping.
What a WCB clearance actually is
A clearance is a letter from the Workers Compensation Board of Manitoba confirming whether a business, contractor, or subcontractor is in good standing, meaning they're registered and their account is current. You request it before you hire or pay a sub, so you know where they stand.
Why it matters more than people think
This is the part that catches companies off guard. According to WCB Manitoba, if you hire a contractor who is not in good standing, you can become responsible for the labour portion of their earnings in your own assessable payroll, and you may have to report any injuries that happen while they work for you. If they're in an accident, your own assessment rates can even go up.
Hiring a sub whose WCB has lapsed isn't only their problem. It can quietly become yours.
How to check (it's free)
WCB Manitoba runs a free, public online clearance system. Anyone can search a subcontractor and pull their status. No registration required. If you register (also free), you can save a list of your subs and get email updates.
The part that actually slips
Checking one sub, once, is easy. The hard part is doing it for every sub, every month, and noticing when a clearance is about to expire, on top of running your actual business. A clearance that was current when the job started can lapse halfway through, and nobody notices until something goes wrong.
A simple system
You don't need software. A single tracker with one row per vendor, the clearance status, expiry date, and a flag when something's expiring covers it. We built a free one:
When to hand it off
If you've got more than a handful of subs, maintaining that tracker by hand becomes its own chore. FORGE Vendor Desk keeps it current for you. We track every sub's WCB clearance and insurance, flag what's expiring, and send you one clean report a month.