About Greenspine
Safety Solutions
Vancouver Island's Métis-owned, CHSC-certified occupational health and safety consulting firm. Practical programs. Real results. No generic templates.
Greenspine health and safety strategies are tailored to the needs of each business, and never cookie cutter.
We’ll work with you to deeply understand how your business operates, what your challenges are, and how a safety program will work best for your needs.
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Who Is Greenspine Safety Solutions?
Greenspine Safety Solutions is a Vancouver Island–based occupational health and safety consulting firm serving businesses across British Columbia and Alberta. We help employers of all sizes meet their WorkSafeBC obligations, build health and safety programs that actually function in the field, prepare for COR and OSSE audits, and maintain a safety culture that protects workers and supports long-term operational stability.
Greenspine is proudly 100% Métis-owned and headquartered in Cobble Hill, BC — at the heart of the Cowichan Valley. We are an active member of the Duncan Cowichan Chamber of Commerce, the Métis Nation BC business directory, and the South Island Indigenous Business Directory. We are listed with Health Safety Professionals Canada and certified with the BC Construction Safety Alliance as an external COR auditor.
We work with businesses across Vancouver Island — from the Cowichan Valley and Duncan through Nanaimo and the Oceanside region, Greater Victoria, and north to Courtenay and Campbell River — and across the province to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland and throughout British Columbia and Alberta. In-person and remote service delivery are both available depending on your location and needs.
Our approach is straightforward: we learn how your business actually operates before we write a single policy. We don't sell generic templates. We build safety programs that your supervisors and workers can follow, that satisfy WorkSafeBC requirements, and that reduce the real-world risk of injury, incident, and regulatory penalty.
Meet Dan McMillan
Dan McMillan is the founder and president of Greenspine Safety Solutions and Greenspine Safety Academy. He is a Certified Health and Safety Consultant (CHSC) — the nationally recognized professional designation awarded by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering — and a certified external COR auditor registered with the BC Construction Safety Alliance (BCCSA).
Dan brings over 20 years of combined experience in occupational health and safety to every client engagement, including 13 years in dedicated OHS roles and 10 years in the BC forestry sector providing advanced first aid and supporting field-level safety initiatives. His career spans some of BC's most hazardous industries — construction, forestry, oil and gas, aquaculture, manufacturing, municipal operations, retail, and marine services — giving him an unusually broad and practical understanding of how workplace risk actually manifests across different operations and workforce types.
He is proudly Indigenous — a member of the Métis Nation of Greater Victoria and the Métis Nation of BC — and brings that perspective to how Greenspine works with Indigenous-owned businesses, Indigenous-led organizations, and employers with Indigenous workforce commitments across BC and Western Canada.
Dan holds the following professional credentials and certifications:
CHSC — Certified Health and Safety Consultant, Canadian Society of Safety Engineering
EOH — Environmental and Occupational Health designation
BCCSA Certified External COR Auditor — BC Construction Safety Alliance
Taproot Certified — Advanced incident investigation methodology
Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner — change management methodology applied to safety culture transformation
BFA — Bachelor of Fine Arts (University of Victoria)
Founder of Greenspine Safety Solutions - CHSC, EOH, Prosci
Local. Professional. Certified.
Most small and mid-sized businesses across BC are running without a full-time safety professional. They have WorkSafeBC obligations they don't fully understand, safety programs that were written years ago by someone who has since left, and supervisors who are doing their best but have never been properly trained on their legal responsibilities under the BC OHS Regulation.
The gap between what these businesses have and what they actually need — in terms of documentation, training, inspection practices, hazard identification, and incident management — is the gap Greenspine was built to close.
Dan founded Greenspine Safety Solutions because he saw that same gap repeatedly across his career: organizations that genuinely wanted to do right by their workers, but didn't have the internal expertise to build and maintain a safety management system that actually worked. The goal was simple: make professional, effective occupational health and safety consulting accessible to businesses that can't afford a full-time safety director — and deliver it in a way that treats employers as capable adults who need practical guidance, not compliance paperwork.
The name Greenspine reflects that philosophy. Read more about why the company is called what it's called, and read Darcy's Story — the account that crystallizes why this work matters beyond regulatory compliance.
Selection of Industry Certifications & Memberships
When it comes to safety, you want to work with the real deal. We’re associated with and backed by Canada’s and BC’s most prestigious safety organizations:
Industries We Serve in the Cowichan Valley
Trusted by Canadian Businesses
Greenspine Safety Solutions measures success the way it should be measured: in fewer injuries, stronger audit scores, lower WorkSafeBC assessment rates, and organizations where workers and management alike take safety seriously because the system makes sense to them.
Here is a selection of documented outcomes Dan has delivered for clients across BC and Western Canada:
WorkSafeBC Experience Rating: Improved a client's experience rating from a 94% surcharge to a 7% discount — a turnaround that directly reduced their annual WorkSafeBC premiums and signalled to insurers and prime contractors that the organization's safety performance had fundamentally changed.
Injury Reduction: Achieved more than a 50% reduction in all workplace injuries across client organizations through systematic hazard identification, updated safe work procedures, improved supervisor accountability, and structured worker training programs.
COR / OSSE Audit Score: Increased a client's OSSE safety audit score from 86% to 97%, and supported them in achieving more than two consecutive years without a lost-time injury — a record-setting outcome for that organization.
These outcomes aren't the result of paperwork. They're the result of building safety systems that work the way real workplaces work — with management buy-in, clear accountability, and practical tools that supervisors and workers can actually use.
The proof is in the numbers…
Here are some of the improvements Dan has delivered for his clients:
Improved WorkSafe
BC Experience
Rating from a
94% surcharge to a
7% discount.
Achieved more than a
50%
reduction
in all workplace injuries.
OSSE (COR) Safety
Audit score increased from
86% to 97%
+ 2 years without
a lost time injury.
What Greenspine Safety Solutions Does
WorkSafeBC Safety Program Development
Every BC employer with workers is legally required to have a written health and safety program. Greenspine develops custom programs built around your specific operations — covering written policies and procedures, safe work procedures, hazard identification and risk assessment, emergency response planning, first aid procedures, and incident reporting. Programs are written in plain language, designed to be implemented without a compliance department, and built to satisfy WorkSafeBC requirements from day one. Learn more about our health and safety consulting services.
Fractional Safety Consulting — Monthly Support
Most businesses don't need — or can't afford — a full-time safety manager. Greenspine's fractional safety consulting program provides ongoing monthly OHS support at a fraction of that cost: inspections, documentation maintenance, training coordination, incident review, regulatory monitoring, and management advisory. You get CHSC-certified, Director-level safety expertise integrated into your operations without adding a permanent headcount. This is Greenspine's most popular service for small and mid-sized businesses across BC.
COR Audit Preparation and OSSE Certification
The Certificate of Recognition (COR) and the Occupational Safety Standard of Excellence (OSSE) are BC's primary health and safety management system certifications. Achieving COR or OSSE is increasingly required for bidding on public sector contracts, working with major prime contractors, and qualifying for certain bonding and insurance programs. As a BCCSA-certified external COR auditor, Dan McMillan has unique insight into exactly what auditors look for — and how to build a safety management system that passes at a high score, not just the minimum threshold. Learn more about COR audit preparation with Greenspine.
Safety Training — Online and In-Person
WorkSafeBC requires employers to provide adequate safety training to every worker — and the standard for adequacy is defined by the hazards of the work, not a single orientation video. Greenspine delivers workplace safety training for workers and supervisors that is practical, documented, and aligned with your actual hazard exposure. Through Greenspine Academy, clients also have access to over 2,000 online safety training courses covering WHMIS, fall protection, confined space entry, forklift operation, JHSC training, supervisor due diligence, and dozens of other topics relevant to BC employers.
Safety Manual Builder
For businesses that want a structured starting point they can build on themselves, Greenspine offers a Safety Manual Builder — a guided process for creating a WorkSafeBC-compliant safety manual tailored to your industry and operations. It's the most accessible entry point into professional health and safety documentation for small businesses that aren't ready for full consulting engagement.
Free WorkSafeBC Safety Program
ReviewFor businesses that want a structured starting point they can build on themselves, Greenspine offers a Safety Manual Builder — a guided process for creating a WorkSafeBC-compliant safety manual tailored to your industry and operations. It's the most accessible entry point into professional health and safety documentation for small businesses that aren't ready for full consulting engagement.
Where Greenspine Safety Solutions Works
Greenspine is based in Cobble Hill and provides in-person and remote health and safety consulting throughout BC and Alberta. Our primary service areas include:
Vancouver Island
Cowichan Valley — Duncan, Cobble Hill, Mill Bay, Chemainus, Ladysmith, Lake Cowichan, Shawnigan Lake
Duncan — the commercial and industrial hub of the Cowichan Valley
Nanaimo & Oceanside — Nanaimo, Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Lantzville, Nanoose Bay
Greater Victoria — Victoria, Langford, Colwood, Saanich, Sooke, Sidney
Mainland BC
Vancouver & Lower Mainland — Vancouver, Burnaby, Surrey, Richmond, Coquitlam, Abbotsford, Chilliwack
Interior and Northern BC — Kelowna, Kamloops, Prince George, and surrounding regions
Province-Wide and Remote
British Columbia — full province served via remote and hybrid delivery
Alberta — Calgary, Edmonton, and province-wide remote support
For businesses in remote or rural BC, remote and hybrid service delivery is standard practice. Contact us to discuss your location and we'll confirm how we can support you.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Three things distinguish Greenspine from most other safety consulting firms in BC. First, Dan McMillan holds the CHSC designation — the highest nationally recognized professional credential in Canadian occupational health and safety — and is a certified external COR auditor with the BCCSA, meaning he has the formal qualifications to both build safety programs and independently audit them. Second, Greenspine is genuinely local to Vancouver Island: based in Cobble Hill, embedded in the regional business community, and available for in-person work across the island without mainland travel costs. Third, every program Greenspine develops is built from scratch around how your specific business operates — not adapted from a generic template. Read our FAQ page for more commonly asked questions.
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Yes. Greenspine Safety Solutions is 100% Métis-owned. Dan McMillan is a member of the Métis Nation of Greater Victoria and the Métis Nation of BC. Greenspine is listed in the Métis Nation BC business directory and the South Island Indigenous Business Directory, and holds certification as an Indigenous business through recognized Canadian procurement registries. For organizations with Indigenous procurement requirements or supplier diversity commitments, Greenspine provides certified, experienced OHS consulting that also satisfies those obligations.
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The CHSC (Certified Health and Safety Consultant) is a professional designation awarded by the Canadian Society of Safety Engineering (CSSE) — the leading professional body for occupational health and safety practitioners in Canada. It is awarded to individuals who meet rigorous experience requirements, pass a comprehensive examination, and demonstrate competency across all major domains of occupational health and safety practice including hazard identification, risk management, safety management systems, legislation, training, and incident investigation. It is the Canadian equivalent of the internationally recognized CSP (Certified Safety Professional) designation. Dan McMillan holds the CHSC designation and is one of a small number of CHSC-certified consultants based on Vancouver Island.
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Darcy's Story is the most powerful answer to that question available on this site. It's not a marketing page — it's a real account of what workplace safety failure actually looks like, and why getting it right is not optional. The Greenspine Safety Blog also covers practical topics including WorkSafeBC incident reporting, who to hire for health and safety in BC, why safety manuals sometimes fail, and what the benefits of an external COR auditor are. The BC Safety Program Guide is the most complete resource on this site for understanding WorkSafeBC program requirements.
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Greenspine works with businesses of all sizes across BC and Alberta — from sole proprietors and small trades contractors to mid-sized manufacturers, forestry operations, marine businesses, healthcare organizations, and municipal operators. The common thread is that these businesses need professional OHS expertise but don't have — or don't need — a full-time safety manager on staff. Greenspine's fractional safety consulting program is specifically designed for this profile, and the free safety program review is available to any BC employer regardless of size or industry.
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Yes. Through Greenspine Academy, clients have access to over 2,000 online safety training courses covering the full range of topics required by WorkSafeBC — from WHMIS and fall protection to forklift operation, confined space entry, supervisor due diligence, JHSC training, and dozens of others. Online training is available to employees anywhere in BC and Canada and is complemented by in-person and virtual instructor-led training for topics that require demonstration or group interaction. Learn more about safety training options with Greenspine.
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If your business has employees in BC, you have WorkSafeBC obligations — regardless of size, industry, or perceived risk level. The question isn't whether you need a safety program; it's whether the one you have (or don't have) meets the legal standard, reflects how your workplace actually operates, and would hold up under a WorkSafeBC inspection or a serious incident investigation. The free safety program review is designed to answer that question without any financial commitment. You'll leave the review knowing exactly where you stand and what, if anything, needs to change.
