Prime Contractor — Alberta OHS
In Alberta, the prime contractor is the employer or person who has overall responsibility for OHS at a worksite where multiple employers are working. The prime contractor must ensure that all employers and workers at the site comply with the OHS Act, Regulation, and Code.
When multiple employers work at the same worksite in Alberta — a construction project, a shutdown, a multi-trade renovation — someone has to be responsible for coordinating safety across all of them. That person or company is the prime contractor. The prime contractor role carries significant legal responsibility under the Alberta OHS Act.
Who is the prime contractor
The prime contractor is whoever the owner of the worksite designates in writing to be responsible for OHS coordination. On most construction projects, this is the general contractor. On industrial shutdowns, it may be the owner or a designated contractor.
If no prime contractor is designated in writing, the owner of the worksite automatically becomes the prime contractor by default under the Alberta OHS Act — whether they want that responsibility or not.
What the prime contractor is responsible for
The prime contractor must ensure that all employers, contractors, and workers at the site comply with the OHS Act, Regulation, and Code. This includes establishing a site-wide safety program, coordinating hazard identification across all trades, and ensuring that safety information is shared between employers.
The prime contractor does not take over the safety obligations of individual employers — each employer is still responsible for their own workers. But the prime contractor is responsible for the overall safety system at the site.
Prime contractor vs employer
An employer is responsible for the safety of their own workers. The prime contractor is responsible for the coordination of safety across all employers at the site. A company can be both — a general contractor is the prime contractor for the site and the employer for their own workers.
Subcontractors are employers for their own workers but are not the prime contractor. They must comply with the prime contractor's site safety program in addition to their own obligations.
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