Does Workers' Compensation Cover Driving To and From Work?

Ordinary travel between home and a fixed workplace is often outside workers’ compensation coverage, but there is no single Canada-wide commute rule. Coverage can change when the trip itself serves a work purpose, the employer provides or controls transportation, the worker travels to an off-site assignment, a private access road is involved, or a personal detour interrupts an otherwise work-related journey. The governing provincial or federal scheme and the precise route facts decide the claim. Workers’ compensation is governed by provincial, territorial or federal legislation and policy. Terms such as “arising out of” and “in the course of employment” appear across systems, but the presumptions, exclusions and travel examples are not identical. This article uses Alberta’s current WCB policy to show how those facts can change the result.