Guides
Cleanable Square Metres: Measuring a Janitorial Contract in Ontario and BC
Measure a janitorial contract by cleanable square metres in Ontario and BC: the walkthrough, crew timing, 2026 WSIB and WorkSafeBC rates, and sales tax.
What to take away
- A Canadian janitorial contract unit rate starts from cleanable square metres, not rentable floor area.
- The price is built from loaded labour, supplies, equipment, overhead and margin, then GST/HST and the provincial workers' compensation premium.
- Ontario bids must carry WSIB premiums and British Columbia bids WorkSafeBC premiums; each board sets its own rates, so take the figure from your own account, not from another province.
- A timed clean on one representative floor catches the most common pricing mistake before the bid goes out.
- Stop and hand the quote to a professional when a unionized workforce, a shared multi-employer site, or a large cleanable-area dispute appears.
A square metre price is only as good as the cleanable area behind it, and the labour hours you time on it. This method covers Ontario and British Columbia, where the workers' compensation boards are WSIB and WorkSafeBC; other provinces have their own boards and employment standards. It gives the sequence and the checks, not a market rate: the hours per 100 m² have to come from your own crew.
What has to be true before you measure
You need the as-built floor plan or a verified laser measure, not the broker's rentable-area summary. Walk every level and count fixtures, high-touch points, floor finishes, stairs, and garbage rooms. Confirm the cleaning frequency for each area: daily, weekly, or periodic. Check the Ontario Employment Standards Act, 2000, or in British Columbia the Employment Standards Act administered by the Employment Standards Branch, for the current minimum wage, overtime, and statutory holiday rules that will load your labour rate. Keep a pricing worksheet from a commercial cleaning business quote with separate line items for labour, supplies, equipment, and overhead.
The pricing sequence
- Calculate cleanable square metres by measuring all finished floors that a cleaner must service, not corridors behind locked doors unless they are in scope.
- Split the area into service bandsoffice floors, washrooms, common areas, and controlled environments.
- Assign labour hours per task per 100 m² using your own time trials, not a borrowed rate.
- Multiply the hours by a loaded wage that includes vacation pay, statutory holiday pay, and shift premiums.
- Add the supply cost per month for chemicals, liners, paper, and consumables.
- Add monthly equipment amortization, insurance, management, and your target margin.
- Add the workers' compensation premium, WSIB in Ontario or WorkSafeBC in British Columbia, to the cost lines, divide the monthly price in CAD by cleanable m², and show the sales tax on the invoice on top of that price.
The workers' compensation line is a rate per $100 of payroll, applied to the labour in step 4. In British Columbia, the WorkSafeBC average base premium rate for 2026 is $1.55 per $100 of assessable payroll; the rate for your own classification unit, found in WorkSafeBC's rate search, is the one that belongs in the bid.
In Ontario, the WSIB average premium rate for 2026 is $1.23 per $100 of insurable payroll, and the maximum insurable earnings ceiling for 2026 is $121,700. As in BC, the average is only a reference point: the class rate on your own WSIB account is the one to use.
The sales tax differs between the two provinces. On the CRA table of GST/HST rates by province, Ontario charges a 13% HST. British Columbia does not take part in the HST: the GST there is 5%, and the table lists a separate 7% PST, which the province administers itself. Quote the per-m² price before tax, so that bids from both provinces compare on the same base.
The step that decides the result
Labour hours per 100 m² are the only input you can verify with a stopwatch. Every other line can be checked on an invoice.
Assigned hours control the result because labor is normally the largest cost and the easiest to get wrong. A walkthrough that misses washroom fixtures or high-touch points can shift hours by more than the margin. Do not let an estimator copy a number from a USD square-foot article, because the metric and tax base differ.
Provincial rules change the loaded wage, not the measurement: holiday pay, vacation pay and overtime under provincial employment standards are applied after the hours are known. The correct number comes from timing your own crew on a representative floor and adjusting for travel between floors.
How to check each step came out right
- Re-measure at least three floors with a laser measure and compare to the plan.
- Count every washroom fixture, soap dispenser, and high-touch point twice.
- Time one cleaner on a representative 100 m² at the required frequency.
- Ask the estimator to state the labour-hours-per-100-m² figure before reading the total.
- Re-run the loaded wage with the current provincial minimum wage and overtime rates.
If a timed clean differs from the estimated hours by more than 12 percent, send the estimator back to the task list. That is a measurable check and catches the most common failure: optimistic task times.
What to do when a step goes wrong
The common failure is an undercount of fixtures or high-touch points, and it hides until the second month when the crew runs late. Recovery: create a fixture count sheet from the entrance to the exit, photograph each washroom, and compare the count against the walkthrough notes. If the premium line is wrong, the comparison in Workers' compensation premiums compared shows how Ontario and British Columbia premiums diverge. If the square metre total disagrees with the lease, stop pricing and reconcile the area before touching the labour rate.
When to stop and hand it to a professional
Stop when a walkthrough reveals a unionized workforce, a multi-employer building, or a cleanable-area difference of more than 15 percent between plans and laser measurement. These conditions change legal obligations under the Ontario Labour Relations Act or the Canada Labour Code. Pricing on your own in those cases risks a unit rate that is not enforceable. Hand the file to a labour lawyer or a contract pricing specialist. Read Unionized vs Non-Union Janitorial Contracts before meeting them.
