Our Story
Built by someone who has done the work.
COR Pathways was founded by Blake Cowan, a National Construction Safety Officer with 15 to 20 years of health and safety experience across construction, oil and gas, and general industry in multiple provinces across Canada. Blake has spent his career on job sites, in site trailers, in boardrooms, and in audit interviews; understanding exactly what it takes to build a safety program that actually works and actually passes.
After years of watching construction companies struggle through COR certification with outdated tools: spreadsheets, paper forms, filing cabinets full of documents nobody could find. Blake built COR Pathways. Not as a generic safety software platform, but as a purpose-built certification tool designed around the COR 2020 standard from the ground up. Every feature exists because a real audit required it.
Today COR Pathways serves construction companies across Ontario for full COR certification and companies across Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan for SE-COR Health & Safety Program Management, combining hands-on consulting expertise with a platform that makes the entire process trackable, transparent, and manageable.
National Construction Safety Officer
Blake holds the NCSO designation, one of the most recognized safety credentials in the Canadian construction industry. The NCSO designation reflects deep knowledge of occupational health and safety legislation, hazard management, and safety program development.
15 to 20 Years of Field Experience
Construction, oil and gas, and general industry across multiple Canadian provinces. Real job sites, real audits, real safety programs built from scratch. Not theoretical knowledge: working experience.
Multi-Province Safety Expertise
Experience working across Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and beyond, with deep knowledge of provincial OH&S legislation, IHSA COR requirements, and SE-COR program standards in western Canada.
Why COR Pathways Exists
The problem with how most companies approach COR certification.
Most construction companies approaching COR certification for the first time face the same challenges. They are handed a list of 14 elements, a stack of template documents, and told to build a safety management system, while simultaneously running crews, managing projects, and winning new work. The result is a half-built safety program that scrapes through an audit, or fails one.
The tools available to most companies made this worse, not better. Generic safety software not built around COR. Consultants who hand over a binder and disappear. Template packages that get filled in and filed away. None of it reflects how safety programs actually get built and maintained in the real world of construction.
COR Pathways exists because there was a gap between what construction companies needed and what was available to them. A platform built specifically around the COR 2020 standard. A consulting model that stays actively involved: daily monitoring, weekly calls, real feedback on real submissions. And a service that extends beyond Ontario to help smaller western Canadian companies manage their safety programs properly without the cost of a full-time safety officer.
COR elements built into every feature of the platform
Provinces served: Ontario, Alberta, BC, Saskatchewan
Dedicated consultant actively involved in your certification
What Sets Us Apart
We are not a software company that learned safety. We are safety professionals who built software.
Daily Monitoring, Not Monthly Reports
When your workers submit forms, we review them. When something is wrong, we flag it the same day. Most consultants check in once a month and tell you what went wrong. We catch issues in real time, before they become audit problems.
Built Around COR, Not Adapted to It
COR Pathways was designed from the ground up around the COR 2020 standard. Every form, every library, every audit element tracker was built because a specific audit requirement needed it. Nothing is bolted on or approximated.
A Real Consulting Relationship
Weekly Zoom calls. Live team training. Hands-on document building. We are actively involved in your certification every week for the duration of your engagement, not just available by email if you have a question.
National Reach With Provincial Depth
We understand the differences between Ontario COR, SE-COR in western Canada, and the compliance requirements of ISNetworld, Avetta, and ComplyWorks. One company with the expertise to serve contractors across Canada.
Our Services
Everything we do. All in one place.
COR Pathways is not just a platform and not just a consulting service. It is a complete solution for construction companies that need to get certified, stay compliant, and manage their safety programs properly, across every province we serve.
COR Certification Consulting
Ontario
Full COR 2020 certification consulting: program build, gap analysis, mock audit, AuditSoft export, and active daily monitoring through the platform; app included free.
Learn more →H&S Program Management
Alberta · BC · Saskatchewan
Complete remote health and safety program management for SE-COR companies in western Canada. We build it, monitor it, and maintain it; you run your business.
Learn more →Compliance Management
All provinces
ISNetworld, Avetta, and ComplyWorks setup and ongoing management. From zero to green, and we keep you there.
Learn more →The COR Pathways Platform
All provinces
Purpose-built safety management software aligned to the COR 2020 standard. Available to consulting clients free, and to certified alumni on standalone plans.
Learn more →What We Believe
The principles behind everything we do.
Expertise over templates
Anyone can sell you a folder of Word documents and call it a safety program. We build programs based on real field experience, active monitoring, and genuine knowledge of the COR standard, not off-the-shelf templates handed over and forgotten.
Involvement over availability
Being available to answer questions is not the same as being actively involved. We are in your account daily, on a call with you weekly, and building your program alongside you throughout the engagement. That is a different kind of service.
Outcomes over activity
Our job is not to keep you busy with safety tasks. Our job is to get you certified, or keep you compliant. Everything we do is measured against that outcome. If it does not move you closer to certification or compliance, we do not waste your time on it.