Facility manager duties in Canada: what the role covers, and how to show it is done

01

What a facility manager is, and whose duties the role carries

The federal government's National Occupational Classification puts the role in unit group 70012, Facility operation and maintenance managers. It says facility operation managers "plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of commercial, transportation and recreational facilities and the included real estate", and that maintenance managers do the same for "the maintenance department within commercial, industrial, institutional, recreational and other facilities". Example titles include facility operations manager, building services manager and director of maintenance.

The role is found in many industries. The NOC says facility operation managers "are employed by a wide range of establishments, such as airports, harbours, canals, shopping centres, convention centres, warehouses and recreational facilities", and maintenance managers work in office buildings, universities, schools and sports facilities as well as in manufacturing and other industrial establishments.

Facilities management is the wider function the role belongs to. IFMA's What is Facility Management? adopts the ISO definition: "an organizational function which integrates people, place and process within the built environment with the purpose of improving the quality of life of people and the productivity of the core business".

A facility manager usually works for the organization that occupies the buildings. A property manager usually works for the owner and looks after tenants and the base building, and a building superintendent or building operator does or arranges the day-to-day work on site. In a small organization one person may be all three.

No Canadian statute sets out the duties of a "facility manager". The legal duties belong to the owner of the workplace, the employer and the supervisor, and the facility manager is usually how the organization carries them out. Workplace health and safety law is provincial for most workplaces, and federal only for federally regulated work such as banks, airports and interprovincial transport. Four examples:

• Ontario. The Occupational Health and Safety Act defines an owner to include a "tenant, lessee, or occupier of any lands or premises used or to be used as a workplace, and a person who acts for or on behalf of an owner as an agent or delegate", and a supervisor as "a person who has charge of a workplace or authority over a worker". A facility manager can meet both definitions.
• British Columbia. Section 25 of the Workers Compensation Act requires every owner of a workplace to "provide and maintain the owner's land and premises that are being used as a workplace in a manner that ensures the health and safety of persons at or near the workplace".
• Alberta. Part 1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act sets out the obligations of each work site party. An employer must ensure, "as far as it is reasonably practicable for the employer to do so, the health, safety and welfare of workers", and section 9 requires an owner to keep the land, buildings and premises it controls from endangering workers and others.
• Federally regulated workplaces. Section 124 of the Canada Labour Code, Part II, says "every employer shall ensure that the health and safety at work of every person employed by the employer is protected", and section 125(1) adds specific duties for every workplace the employer controls, starting with ensuring "that all permanent and temporary buildings and structures meet the prescribed standards".

Quebec has its own law, administered by the CNESST. The rest of this guide uses Ontario as the example; check the equivalent in your own province or territory.

02

Facility manager duties and responsibilities, listed

The NOC's main duties for the group include to "plan, organize and direct administrative services such as signage, cleaning, maintenance, parking, safety inspections, security and snow removal", to "develop and implement schedules and procedures for safety inspections and preventive maintenance programs" and to "administer contracts for the provision of supplies and services". Job descriptions put the same work in their own words:

• Health and safety of the premises: knowing the owner's and employer's duties that apply to each building, and making sure the facilities and conditions the regulations prescribe are provided and maintained.
• Fire and life safety: the fire safety plan, and making sure fire alarm, sprinkler, standpipe and emergency lighting systems are checked, inspected and tested as the provincial fire code requires, with the records kept.
• Maintenance: planned preventive maintenance of heating, ventilation and air conditioning, electrical, plumbing and elevator equipment, the building automation system, the roof and the envelope, set out in a preventive maintenance checklist, and reactive repairs when something fails.
• Building services: janitorial or custodial cleaning, security, reception, mail, waste and recycling, parking, grounds, and snow and ice control.
• Energy and sustainability: tracking energy and water use, running building systems for efficiency, and meeting the organization's waste and sustainability targets.
• Contractors: scopes of work, tenders, and checking the service was delivered before paying.
• Budgets: the operating budget and the capital plan.
• Reporting: telling senior management whether the buildings are safe, compliant and on budget, and what they need next.

03

The legal duties behind the job, in practice

Taking Ontario as the example, these are the duties a facility manager most often carries out on the organization's behalf. The section numbers are Ontario's; every province has its own equivalents.

• Owner's duties. Section 29(1) of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires the owner of a workplace that is not a construction project to ensure that prescribed facilities are provided and "maintained as prescribed", that "the workplace complies with the regulations". The province's Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act explains these duties in plain language.
• Employer's duties. Section 25 requires the employer to ensure that equipment, materials and protective devices provided are "maintained in good condition", and to "take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker".
• Supervisor's duties. Section 27 requires a supervisor to "advise a worker of the existence of any potential or actual danger to the health or safety of the worker of which the supervisor is aware" and to "take every precaution reasonable in the circumstances for the protection of a worker". A facility manager who directs building operators or custodians is their supervisor for these purposes.
• Washrooms. Section 25.3 requires an employer to keep the washroom facilities it provides for workers "in a clean and sanitary condition", and to "keep, maintain and make available records of the cleaning of washroom facilities as prescribed". Under O. Reg. 480/24, in force from January 1, 2026, an employer can meet that duty by posting the record in a conspicuous place in or near the washroom, or electronically where workers can reach it and are told how, and the record must include "the date and time of the two most recent cleanings of the washroom facility". The washroom cleaning checklist guide covers it in detail.
• Fire safety. Under Division A of the Ontario Fire Code (O. Reg. 213/07), "unless otherwise specified, the owner is responsible for carrying out the provisions of this Code" (Article 1.2.1.1), and the owner is "any person, firm or corporation having control over any portion of the building or property under consideration". Other provinces and territories adopt or adapt the National Fire Code of Canada; check with your municipal, provincial or territorial official which edition applies.

In leased space, the lease decides which of these the landlord carries and which the tenant carries. Know where that line is for every building, because the law can treat both as owners or occupiers at once.

04

In-house, contracted, and who does what

Name the delivery model for each service:

• In-house: the organization employs its own building operators, custodians or trades, and the facility manager supervises them directly.
• Single services contracted: separate contracts for janitorial, security, mechanical maintenance, elevators, fire protection, landscaping and snow removal, each managed by the facility manager.
• Integrated facility management: one company delivers most services under one contract, and the facility manager becomes the informed client, setting the scope and checking performance.
• Landlord services: in leased space, the landlord's property manager delivers base building services.

Contracting moves the work, not the duty. Under section 3(1) of Ontario's Occupiers' Liability Act, an occupier must take reasonable care that people on the premises are "reasonably safe while on the premises", which is behind the attention paid to wet floors, walkways and snow and ice, and behind keeping a snow removal log. Section 6(1) protects an occupier from liability for an independent contractor's negligence only if it acted reasonably in entrusting the work, took the steps it reasonably ought "in order to be satisfied that the contractor was competent and that the work had been properly done", and the work was reasonable to contract out. In Alberta, section 8 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act requires a contracting employer who directs another employer's activities at a work site to ensure, "as far as it is reasonably practicable to do so, that the employer complies with this Act, the regulations and the OHS Code in respect of that work site."

That is why so much of the role is written into a scope of work and a service level agreement. Write down, for each building and each service, who does the work, who checks it, where the record is kept and who is told when it goes wrong. Most gaps sit at a boundary: between two contractors, between a contractor and the in-house team, or between the tenant and the landlord.

05

The inspection year, and what good evidence looks like

Day to day, the job is service delivery: walking the buildings, work orders, contractors and invoices. Behind that sits a calendar of inspections and tests, the backbone of any building compliance checklist:

• Workplace inspections. In Ontario, a joint health and safety committee member designated to inspect "shall inspect the physical condition of the workplace at least once a month" unless the regulations or an inspector require otherwise (section 9(26) of the Act). Under the Canada Labour Code, section 125(1)(z.12) requires the workplace committee or the health and safety representative to inspect "each month all or part of the work place, so that every part of the work place is inspected at least once each year". The JHSC workplace inspection guide covers these.
• Fire protection. The checks, inspections and tests the fire code sets for fire alarm, sprinkler, standpipe, emergency lighting and portable extinguishers, at the intervals the code and its referenced standards give, usually by the building operator and qualified contractors.
• Routine building checks. Washrooms, entrances, stairwells, mechanical rooms, garbage rooms and, in winter, walkways and ramps, as often as the risk and the contracts call for.

The fire code is specific about records. In Ontario, if the Code requires tests, corrective measures or operational procedures, "records shall be made noting what was done and the date and time it was done" (Division B, Sentence 1.1.2.1.(1)). Records are kept at the building "for a period of at least two years after being prepared" (Division B, Article 1.1.2.2), and electronic records that can be made readily available to the Chief Fire Official are accepted. The fire safety log book guide covers what goes in them.

Health and safety law is less prescriptive, but the defence depends on records. CCOHS, the Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety, describes due diligence as "the level of judgement, care, prudence, determination, and activity that a person would reasonably be expected to do under particular circumstances", and advises employers to "document, in writing, all of the above activities". Its guidance on effective workplace inspections says to "assign a responsible person and establish a definite correction due date" for each finding, and then to "determine if these actions have been taken".

Good evidence is being able to answer these quickly, with a record behind each answer:

1. Which inspections and tests are due in the next three months, and which are overdue?
2. Were last week's routine checks done in every building, and by whom?
3. Which work orders and hazards are open, how old are they, and who owns each one?
4. Is each contractor delivering what the contract says, measured the same way every month?
5. Where is the money going against budget, and what is coming in the capital plan?

The NOC notes that "several years of supervisory experience in facility operations or maintenance are usually required" for the role, and those answers are what the experience is for.

06

Where the record fails, and what SiteClara does about it

A facility manager usually has good records of what contractors certify and weak records of what happens every day. The fire alarm test is in a log book in the mechanical room, the janitorial sign-off sheets are in the contractor's closet, sometimes initialled ahead of time, and a slippery entrance mentioned at reception may never reach anyone who can fix it. Asked whether last month's routine checks were done everywhere, the honest answer is often an assurance, not a record.

SiteClara records that routine work at the place it happens. A printed QR poster at each location, such as a washroom, a mechanical room or a loading dock, with an optional NFC tag behind it, lets custodial, security or building staff scan the code or tap the tag on their own phone, with no app to install. They see the scheduled checks due there and mark each one done, or explain what stopped them, with a photo when one is asked for. An issue reported there goes onto the team's list of jobs until someone closes it, and the supervisor's queue groups open jobs by building and floor. A supervisor can escalate a job to the building manager, who can answer it.

Each day the supervisor reviews the day's work and approves a report that goes to the facility manager and other nominated contacts the next morning. It shows what was reported, what was completed, what is still open and how the scheduled checks went, with the reason given where one was missed. Where a janitorial contractor and a security company share a building, each can run its own staff, forms and approval.

07

Questions people ask

What are the four main functions of a facility manager?

The federal classification names five, not four: plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate. The lead statement for NOC unit group 70012, Facility operation and maintenance managers says facility operation managers "plan, organize, direct, control and evaluate the operations of commercial, transportation and recreational facilities and the included real estate".

What makes a good facility manager?

The NOC does not rate personal qualities, but it sets out what employers usually require. For unit group 70012, facility operation managers require "completion of a college or university program in business administration or in a discipline related to facility operation and maintenance" or an equivalent combination of technical training and experience, maintenance managers require a college or university program in electrical or mechanical engineering or another discipline related to building maintenance, and "several years of supervisory experience in facility operations or maintenance are usually required".

What is the highest salary for a facilities manager?

Job Bank publishes low, median and high wages rather than a maximum. Job Bank's wage report for facilities managers (NOC 70012) gives, for Canada in the 2023–2024 reference period, $25.96 an hour low, $45.20 median and $70.67 high, from Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey. The high figure varies by province and territory, from $56.25 an hour in New Brunswick to $85.75 in Nunavut, and was $70.33 in Ontario.

08

Where to read more, and a list to take away

For the role, read the NOC's unit group 70012. For the law, start with your province: in Ontario, the Occupational Health and Safety Act and the province's Guide to the Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Ontario Fire Code and the Occupiers' Liability Act; in British Columbia, Part 2 of the Workers Compensation Act; in Alberta, Part 1 of the Occupational Health and Safety Act; for federally regulated workplaces, Part II of the Canada Labour Code. CCOHS's guidance on due diligence and workplace inspections applies in every province.

If you are writing a facility manager job description, or starting in the role, check that you know:

• every building and service you are responsible for, and those you are not;
• which law applies to each workplace, who the owner, employer and supervisors are in it, and which of their duties you carry out;
• the inspection and testing calendar for each building, who owns each line, and where each record is kept;
• which services are in-house and which are contracted, and how you check each contractor's work;
• how hazards and maintenance requests are reported, and how you know each one is closed;
• the operating budget, the capital plan, and what senior management expect to see from you and how often.