Become Accredited

An organization applying for accreditation should:

1. Create an account on Council Connect, and then
2. Email the Safety Codes Council, Accreditation department at Accreditation@safetycodes.ab.ca. The accreditation team will then supply you with a form to fill out.

When access to Council Connect has been granted, the organization will be able to submit draft documentation and pay the applicable application fee through our secure online system.

What you need to submit:

• Draft Quality Management Plan
• Draft Transition Plan (Corporations and Municipalities)
• Municipal Council Resolution (Municipalities)
• Application Fee

All applications must include a draft Quality Management Plan (QMP).

The Council has developed templates for organizations to follow. The draft submitted must be redlined to display any changes to the template.

• Municipal QMP Template
• Corporate QMP Template
• Agency QMP Template

Corporations and municipalities must provide a Draft Transition Plan.
As with the QMP, the Council has developed templates for organizations to use and follow. The draft submitted must be redlined to display the changes that the organization is proposing.

Municipalities must also provide a signed Municipal Council Resolution.
The signed resolution should support the application to become accredited. The resolution can be submitted at the beginning of the application process or with the final transition plan.

All organizations must submit an application fee.
All applications for new accreditation are assessed a fee of $150 per discipline. For example, if an organization is submitting an application to become accredited in building, electrical, fire, gas, and plumbing, a fee of $750 will be assessed.

Joint accreditation applications will be assessed the same fee ($150 per discipline) regardless of the number of municipalities participating.

Applications will be reviewed by the Council to determine whether further information is required.

In the review of an organization’s application, the Council will look at a number of factors related to the organization type (i.e. agency, corporation, or municipality), and the disciplines that they are seeking to administer.

Factors considered in the application review include:

• Capacity to provide effective, efficient, professional, and ethical administration of the safety codes system.
• Ability to provide and meet the service delivery standards outlined in the QMP templates.
• If previously accredited, past performance of the organization during that accreditation.
• Ability to ensure the integrity and security of information in keeping with privacy legislation and records management standards of practice.
• Any other information required by the Administrator beyond what has been provided in the application.

Additional considerations that will be taken into account for municipal and corporation applications include, but are not limited to:

• Written submissions forwarded by directly affected organizations. More information on what constitutes a directly affected organization can be found here.
• Information identified in meetings or communications between the applicants and any directly affected organizations.

For agency applications, the other considerations that the Council will be looking to address are:

• Financial stability of the agency and the demonstration of adequate liability insurance.
• Knowledge of the safety codes system.
• Past history of the applicants or its principals or predecessors

Any application to modify an accreditation will be subject to the same criteria.

In parallel with the review of the application, the Accreditation department will issue a public Notice of Intent on the Council’s website. In addition, directly affected organizations are notified by letter of the organization’s request to become accredited and invited to provide their comments, concerns, and input. This input will be considered by the Administrator in the review of the organization’s accreditation application.

The Notice of Intent remains open for 30 days.

Once the Notice of Intent period has closed, directly affected organizations have provided their comments, and the signed versions of the QMP and transition plan have been received, the Administrator will make a decision on whether or not to grant accreditation.

Organizations will be provided written notice of the Administrator’s decision. If accreditation is granted, Orders of Accreditation will be issued in the technical disciplines covered under the scope of their approved QMP.  In compliance with the Act, these Orders of Accreditation will be published in the Alberta Gazette.

The Order is the formal authority document that both designates the organization as accredited and delegates responsibility to administer and enforce compliance with the Act.