Start with the word that means nothing
There is no licence to clean in Ontario. Cleaning is not among the 23 compulsory trades, the group where a certificate is legally required to work and which includes plumber, electrician, steamfitter and hairstylist (Skilled Trades Ontario). No provincial body registers cleaners, examines them or disciplines them.
So a company advertising itself as licensed is either referring to an ordinary municipal business registration, which says nothing about competence, or using the word because it sounds reassuring. That is not a reason to distrust them. It is a reason to move the conversation to the three things that do exist and can be verified.
This matters more in cleaning than in most trades, because the work happens inside your home, often when nobody is there, and because the barrier to entry is a vacuum and a website.
Insured: what breaks and who is hurt
Commercial general liability insurance is the policy that responds when a cleaner knocks a television off a stand, floods a bathroom, or is injured by something on your property and claims against you. It is the broadest and most important of the three, and the certificate takes one email to produce.
Ask for the certificate rather than an assurance, check that the policy is current on the date of your visit, and check the limit. For residential work a limit of one to two million dollars is the ordinary expectation. For commercial work a building owner will often require the contractor to name the owner or the condominium corporation as an additional insured, and many downtown Ottawa buildings will not let a cleaning crew past the lobby without exactly that document.
What liability insurance does not cover is deliberate theft by an employee. That is a different instrument entirely, and conflating the two is the most common misunderstanding in this trade.
Bonded: what a bond actually pays
A janitorial service bond, sometimes called a fidelity bond, is described by one Canadian broker as a legally binding contract between the cleaning company, the surety and the customer that provides recourse for customers and protection for the company against the consequences of employee theft during cleaning services, covering the value of stolen items up to the full bond amount. The same source is explicit that fidelity bonds are not insurance policies, so property damage is not covered as it would be under an insurance policy (NFP).
Two practical consequences. A bond is narrow: it is about dishonesty, not accidents, and a broken vase is not a bond claim. And a bond has a stated amount, which may be modest, so a company being bonded tells you nothing until you know for how much.
A company can hold a bond without liability insurance, or insurance without a bond. Ask about each by name, and ask for the numbers, because the advertising phrase bonded and insured is used freely by companies that hold only one of the two.
WSIB: the one that can land on you
WSIB coverage protects the worker, and indirectly protects whoever engaged them. Most businesses in Ontario must register within 10 calendar days of hiring their first employee, and the mandatory group includes sales and services businesses, which is where cleaning sits. Independent operators outside construction are not automatically covered but may request optional insurance (WSIB).
The verification mechanism is a clearance, described by WSIB as a unique number issued to registered businesses which shows that a business, contractor or subcontractor is registered and up to date, including premium payment and reporting. It is valid for up to 90 days (WSIB). Ask for the number, and for a commercial contract ask again every quarter or at least annually, because an account can lapse quietly.
Now the part most homeowners have never been told. The same WSIB registration page lists homeowners or residents who hire domestic workers such as babysitters, nannies, cooks, gardeners or housekeepers among those who must register. If you engage a cleaner directly as your own worker, paying them yourself and directing their work, you may be an employer with a registration obligation. Engaging an incorporated company that carries its own coverage removes the question. That, rather than any moral argument, is the practical reason to avoid an untraceable cash arrangement for regular in-home work.
Police record checks: what they are and what they are not
Ontario allows three types of check. A criminal record check covers applicable criminal convictions. A criminal record and judicial matters check adds absolute and conditional discharges, outstanding charges, arrest warrants and certain judicial orders. A vulnerable sector check adds findings of not criminally responsible on account of mental disorder, record suspensions for sexual offences and certain non-conviction information, and it is intended for people in a position of trust or authority over children or other vulnerable persons (Ontario).
Consent is not optional. The same source states that consent must first be granted by the individual being checked, and that employers or organisations cannot request a police record check for an individual without their knowledge and consent. Screening also has to comply with the Ontario Human Rights Code.
So the honest position for a household is this. Asking whether staff entering your home have been screened, and which type of check was used, is entirely reasonable. Expecting to see somebody else's check is not, because that document belongs to the individual. And a vulnerable sector check is the right instrument only where the role genuinely involves trust or authority over a vulnerable person, such as cleaning in an occupied home where an elderly resident is present during the visit.
A five-question script
Can you email me a current certificate of insurance, and what is the limit. Are you bonded, and for what amount. Can I have your WSIB clearance number. Are the people coming to my home your employees or subcontractors, and if subcontractors, who insures them. Have they consented to a police record check, and which type.
Five questions, five answers, two minutes. Any company that has been operating properly for a year will have all five to hand. A company that treats the questions as an insult has answered them.