Slip and Fall Liability for Calgary Property Owners

Winter slip and fall claims rarely arrive in winter. They arrive months later, in a letter, about a morning nobody remembers clearly.

That gap is the whole problem. Here is how liability generally works for Calgary property owners, and the boring habit that protects you better than anything else.

The basic duty in Alberta

Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act sets the framework. An occupier, meaning whoever has control over the premises, owes visitors a duty to take reasonable care in the circumstances to see that they will be reasonably safe using the property.

Two words in there do a lot of work.

Reasonable, not perfect. You are not expected to guarantee that nobody ever slips. Ice happens in Calgary, sometimes within an hour, and the law does not pretend otherwise.

In the circumstances. What counts as reasonable on a quiet residential walk is different from a busy retail entrance during a chinook. Higher foot traffic and more predictable hazards mean more is expected.

So the question after an incident is usually not “was there ice?” It is “did the occupier have a sensible system, and did they follow it?”

Why “we hired a contractor” is not automatically a defence

A common assumption is that hiring a snow removal company transfers the risk. It generally does not transfer it entirely.

You remain the occupier. What a contractor changes is that you now have a system, and possibly someone to share responsibility with, depending on the contract and what actually happened.

What that means practically:

• Hire competently. Using an uninsured contractor with no records is not much of a system.
• Check the coverage. Ask for proof of liability insurance and workers’ compensation, and keep the certificate.
• Know what you bought. If your contract covers plowing but not ice control, then on a freeze and thaw morning you have no system for the exact hazard that causes most winter falls.

The Calgary-specific problem

Most cities deal with snow. Calgary deals with snow that melts and refreezes repeatedly.

A chinook can push temperatures above freezing during the day and back below overnight. A lot that was properly plowed on Tuesday afternoon can be glazed with clear ice by Wednesday at 7am, without a single new snowflake.

That matters for liability because:

• The hazard appears after the service visit, so a plow-only arrangement leaves it uncovered
• Clear ice on dark asphalt is genuinely hard for a person to see
• It tends to form overnight, so the exposure lands right at morning opening

This is why ice control is not an upsell in Calgary. It is the part that addresses the most common winter hazard here.

The bylaw sits alongside this, it is not the same thing

Calgary’s snow bylaw requires the public sidewalk bordering your property to be cleared to bare surface within 24 hours of snowfall ending, with fines of $250, then $500, then $750 within a twelve month period.

Two things worth separating:

• Bylaw compliance is about the City and fines.
• Liability is about an injured person and a claim.

Clearing within 24 hours keeps the City satisfied. It does not automatically resolve a claim from someone who fell at hour six. And a bylaw ticket in your history is not a helpful document to have sitting there when a claim is being assessed.

The habit that protects you: documentation

If there is one practical takeaway, it is this. Records are the difference between a defensible position and a memory.

A claim typically arrives months after the incident. Nobody recalls the specific morning. What survives is paperwork.

Keep:

• Service logs with date, time and what was done on each visit
• Photos where practical, especially after major events
• Ice control records, including what was applied and when
• Your contract, showing what was scheduled and expected
• Contractor insurance certificates, current for the season
• Incident reports for anything reported, written the same day

A time-stamped record showing the entrance was cleared and salted at 6:40am is a far stronger answer than anyone’s recollection in October.

Ask your contractor whether they log and photograph visits. Many now do as standard. If yours does not, that is worth knowing before the season rather than after a claim.

Practical steps before the season

1. Read your current contract and find the response time, the surfaces covered, and whether ice control is included.
2. Get current proof of insurance from your contractor and file it.
3. Walk the property and note the risk points: entrances, accessible stalls and their access aisles, stairs, ramps, downspout outflows that refreeze across walkways, and any low spot where meltwater pools.
4. Agree what happens on freeze and thaw mornings, specifically, not just after snowfall.
5. Set up a simple incident report form, and use it the same day, every time.
6. Decide who checks the property first thing on cold mornings and what they do if it is icy.

None of that is expensive. All of it is easier in September than in January.

Frequently asked questions

Am I liable if someone slips on my Calgary property? It depends on whether you took reasonable care in the circumstances. Alberta’s Occupiers’ Liability Act sets a reasonableness standard, not a guarantee of safety.

Does hiring a snow removal company remove my liability? Not automatically. You remain the occupier. A competent, insured contractor with documented service strengthens your position considerably.

Is clearing within 24 hours enough? That addresses the City bylaw. Liability is assessed separately, on whether your overall approach was reasonable for the circumstances.

What is the single most useful thing I can do? Keep time-stamped service and ice control records. Claims arrive late, and documentation is what remains.

Why does ice matter more than snow here? Chinook freeze and thaw cycles create clear ice after the plow has been and gone, which is both the hardest hazard to see and the most common cause of winter falls.

Reducing the risk on your property

Our commercial snow removal covers parking areas, entrances and sidewalks together with ice control rather than plowing alone, because the surfaces people walk on are where the risk actually sits. Response times are written into each contract around when your property has to be open, and we are covered by $2,000,000 liability insurance and Alberta WCB.

For homes and rental properties, residential snow removal plans include ice control for the same reason.

This article is general information, not legal advice. Liability depends on the specific facts of each situation. For advice about your property or an incident, speak to a lawyer or your insurer.