For industrial & trades contractors
Compliance Readiness Review
Two weeks. A clear, evidence-based picture of whether you'd pass the audit today — and exactly what to fix first.
You'd probably pass the audit.
Probably is the problem.
Most contractors don't fail because the program is bad. They fail because nobody could prove the program on the day it counted — and nobody knew that until the auditor was in the office.
- Audit prep means a week of pulling spreadsheets and chasing binders
- Training records live in three places, and none of them track expiry
- Somebody's role changed a year ago and their training didn't
- Inspections find the same deficiencies that were found last quarter
- Incident investigations name what happened, never why
- The program submitted to ISNetworld isn't the manual your crews actually use
- You're paying for training that no current position requires
- A prime's prequalification email makes your stomach drop
Things go wrong. When they do, "we were compliant in real time" reads a lot better on the post-incident report than "we were gathering the spreadsheets."
Who delivers it
Built by the guy who had to pass the audit.
Thirty years in operations, twenty of them in emergency services — rising to Assistant Deputy Chief of Training, building the training and safety systems people depend on when the margin for error is zero.
I've sat on both sides of the table: running the programs that had to pass, and reviewing the programs of contractors who wanted the work. I know what an auditor tests, what a prime's desk audit compares, and which findings actually matter — because for two decades, they were mine to answer for.
Every finding in your report cites its evidence. Neither you nor your auditor will be asked to take a conclusion on faith.
- Assistant Deputy Chief of Training · 23 years in municipal public service
- Program Manager, corporate municipal HR & Safety
- Bachelor of Applied Business, Emergency Services Management (with distinction)
- AI Implications on Business Strategy — MIT Sloan (2024)
- Alberta Minister's Award recipient · COR-aligned practice
Two weeks, start to finish
A fixed sequence, mirroring how a real COR audit works: what's written, what people know, and what the site shows.
Week one
Records review
You send what exists — safety program, training records, inspections, incident files, prequal access. Don't create anything new; the point is to see what's real.
Week two
Interviews and site day
Short, confidential conversations — owner, a supervisor or two, workers on the tools — plus one day walking your site. Questions test the system, never the person.
Day ten
Report and debrief
Findings written, evidenced, and ranked. We walk the top five together; you leave knowing where you stand and what to fix first — in writing, from someone accountable for it.
Your total time commitment: one scoping call, documents you already have, about four hours of interviews across your whole crew, and a one-hour debrief. Your operation keeps running the entire time.
The date is the date. The report delivers on day ten. If documents arrive late or incomplete, the review proceeds and anything not provided is reported as not evidenced — which is itself useful information. I'd rather hand you an honest report on schedule than a padded one late.
What you receive
A findings report you can put in front of an auditor — every finding cited to evidence, every recommendation ranked.
Element Scoreboard
All eight COR audit elements rated red, amber, green — with the evidence behind every rating. Strengths reported alongside gaps.
Fix-First Priority List
Every finding converted into an action, ranked by regulatory exposure, audit-failure risk, and prequal grade risk — with effort estimates.
Role–Requirement Alignment Exhibit
A sample of your positions tested end-to-end: does each role's training match the work? This finds both the missing tickets and the training you're paying for that nobody needs.
Prequalification Status Appendix
ISNetworld, Avetta, ComplyWorks — grades verified, submitted program checked against the one you actually run, statistics recalculated.
Findings Debrief & 30-Day Follow-Up
A one-hour walk-through of the report — the top five items, not a hundred slides — plus a follow-up call thirty days later to keep the list moving. Both included.
What it costs
$3,500–$4,500
Your exact fee is quoted on the scoping call — where you land in the range depends on headcount and sites. Once quoted, it's flat: no hourly billing, no change orders, no expenses added afterward. If the work takes longer than expected, that's my problem, not your invoice.
Included
- Scoping call and full records review
- Interviews across leadership and crew
- One site day in the Wood Buffalo region
- Findings report, scoreboard, and ranked priority list
- One-hour debrief plus a 30-day follow-up call
Optional
- Additional sites or yards — quoted before we start
- Site day elsewhere in Alberta — travel at cost or shared between engagements, agreed up front
- Presenting findings to your prime or client — add $750
Who this is sized for
Built for contractors of roughly 10 to 100 employees — the size where COR, prequalification, and OHS records pressure is real, but there's no full-time safety department to carry it.
Ten or fewer? You're likely on the SECOR pathway, and the review adapts — same evidence, smaller scope, the lower end of the range. Bigger than 100? The sample sizes grow and we quote accordingly. Tell me your headcount and I'll tell you straight.
Straightforward to say yes to
One fixed fee an owner can approve on a phone call. No software purchase, no subscription, no system access, nothing installed. Your records stay yours — working material is held in Canadian-region Microsoft 365 storage and destroyed ninety days after delivery unless you ask otherwise.
Measured against the eight elements your auditor scores
The review follows the Alberta COR audit structure — verified against your certifying partner's current audit instrument before day one, every engagement.
- 1Management Leadership & Commitment
- 2Hazard Identification & Assessment
- 3Hazard Control
- 4Ongoing Inspections
- 5Qualifications, Orientation & Training
- 6Emergency Response
- 7Incident Investigation
- 8Program Administration
Plus what the instrument doesn't cover but your clients do: prequalification network standing, statistics accuracy, and whether the program you submitted is the program you run.
What success looks like
Walking into your next audit already knowing the answer. You own the report and everything in it. Three paths are normal from here — and the first one is genuinely fine with me.
One outcome worth naming up front: the review may tell you you're in better shape than you feared. That's a real result — walking into your audit confident, with evidence, is worth the fee on its own. I'd rather tell you that in week two than invent problems to fix.
Fix it yourself
Most priority items don't need outside help — they need the list, the order, and a Monday. If your team executes it and never calls again, the review did its job.
Re-run before your next audit
The scoreboard becomes a baseline. A second review ahead of your certification or maintenance audit tells you whether the fixes held.
Adopt the system that keeps you ready
If the real problem is that records live in binders and memory, CivicShift offers pre-designed Microsoft 365 and Power Platform solutions you adopt in your own tenant — requirements attached to roles, gaps surfacing the day they happen — with guided implementation and configuration. Anything custom is scoped as its own project. Your review fee applies against adoption in full.
No engagement is contingent on buying anything else, and the report is written the same way regardless.
Questions
Can't we just use ChatGPT to figure out what we need?
You can, and you should — AI is a useful tool, and I use it openly in my own work. But it can't see your actual operation: it doesn't know your training records live in three binders, or that your last audit finding is still open. And when your auditor or prime asks how you validated your program, "we asked ChatGPT" isn't an answer anyone accepts. AI can describe a good safety program. It can't tell you what's wrong with yours — or sign its name to the findings. That's what the fee buys.
Why a range instead of one number?
Because a 12-person SECOR shop and an 85-person multi-crew outfit aren't the same review — the interviews, sampling, and site time scale with your operation. You get one exact number on the scoping call, before anything starts, and that number never moves. The range is just honesty about sizing; the fee itself is fixed the moment it's quoted.
Is this an audit?
No — it's the dress rehearsal. Only a certified external auditor can produce a scored COR audit. The review uses the same three evidence streams (documentation, interviews, observation) and rates you against the same elements, so you walk into the real thing knowing what it will find.
Which certifying partners do you cover?
ACSA, Energy Safety Canada, AMHSA, and others — the review is verified against your certifying partner's current audit instrument before day one. If your partner updated their instrument last month, you're assessed against last month's version, not last year's.
Will my workers get anyone in trouble by talking to you?
No. Questions test the system, not the person — "how were you trained for this task," never "did you skip training." No worker is named in the report; findings reference roles only. I tell every person this before we start, and it's why the interviews produce anything worth reading.
What if you find something serious?
Then you'll know immediately, not on day ten — an imminent physical hazard gets a phone call the same day, and the two of us deal with it before it deals with you. That's the point of doing this before the incident instead of after.
Do you need access to our systems?
No credentials, nothing installed. Documents are shared however you prefer; prequal standing is verified together on a screen-share. Working material is held in Canadian-region Microsoft 365 storage and destroyed ninety days after delivery unless you request otherwise.
We have an audit in three weeks. Can you help?
Maybe — and I'll tell you honestly on the call. If a review can still change your outcome in the time available, we'll compress what's compressible. If it can't, I'll say so and we'll book it for right after, when it becomes your corrective-action plan instead of a scramble.
How soon can you start?
Currently booking new engagements. Ask on the call and I'll give you a real date, not a maybe.
Twenty minutes will tell you whether this is worth doing
No presentation, no deck. You tell me what's coming — the audit, the prequal squeeze, the prime asking questions — and I'll tell you honestly whether the review would help or whether you need something else. If it's something else, I'll say so.
Or email directly — troy.palmer@civicshiftai.com
