The scaffold inspection requirement in Canada
Under BC's OHS Regulation and Alberta's OHS Act, scaffolding must be inspected by a competent person before workers are permitted to use it. In practice, this means every active scaffold on a construction site should have a documented inspection at the start of each shift — before anyone climbs.
The paper tag system — a coloured tag attached to the scaffold indicating inspection status — is widely used but inherently limited. It shows that someone inspected the scaffold at some point. It doesn't capture who did the inspection, what they found, when exactly it happened, or whether they were qualified to conduct the inspection.
What a scaffold inspection record should include
- Inspector name and signature
- Date and time of inspection
- Scaffold location on site
- Base plates and mudsills condition
- Bracing and cross bracing
- Guardrails and toe boards
- Planking condition and adequacy
- Access ladder condition
- Load capacity posting
- Any deficiencies noted and corrective action taken
- Clear declaration: fit for use, or removed from service
TrueCOR Safety's Scaffold Inspection Module brings the same QR-based, GPS-verified approach to daily scaffold inspections. The same QR code your crew uses for FLHAs — they select the scaffold module, complete the inspection checklist, and submit. The record is immediately visible in the supervisor dashboard and stored permanently for audit retrieval.
The liability gap in the paper tag system
When a scaffold collapses and WorkSafeBC investigates, the first question is: was it inspected today? The paper tag shows it was inspected at some point. What it doesn't show is whether the inspection was thorough, whether the inspector was competent, or whether the inspection on the day of the incident covered the specific deficiency that caused the failure.
A digital scaffold inspection record with timestamp, GPS, inspector signature, and specific condition checkpoints answers all of these questions definitively.
How scaffold inspections fit into the TrueCOR Safety platform
TrueCOR Safety is building a modular safety suite on the same QR-based infrastructure as the FLHA. Workers and supervisors scan the same QR code, select their task from a module list, and complete the appropriate form. The scaffold inspection module — launching Q2 2027 for Growth plan customers — will provide the same GPS-verified, e-signed, audit-ready records for scaffold inspections that TrueCOR Safety already provides for FLHAs.
Companies on the Growth plan get all modules included — no additional cost per module.