OHS program template for Canadian employers

An occupational health and safety (OHS) program is the set of responsibilities, procedures and records an employer uses to prevent harm and improve its controls. The template below gives you a practical structure to adapt to your workplace. It is deliberately a *program shell*: each section needs the employer's real people, hazards, safe-work methods and local legal requirements. Publishing a generic PDF or signing a policy without implementing the controls does not make the workplace safe.

Canada does not have one national program template. CCOHS says a program must include the elements required by the legislation that applies to the workplace and be customised. For example, Alberta currently requires a program for employers with 20 or more regularly employed workers but says it does not prescribe one fixed list of program elements; mandatory hazard assessment, committee and training duties still apply. British Columbia's program guidance varies the formal-program requirement by workforce and hazard rating. Check the actual jurisdiction, workforce counting method, sector and site before adopting this structure.

Cover and control page — copy into your document

Keep one controlled version per applicable entity or operating arrangement, with site appendices when hazards differ. If a multi-province company uses a common core, add jurisdiction-specific schedules for notices, committees, first aid, training and any other differing duties. Do not insert a national rule where the law changes at a provincial border.

1. Policy and leadership

> Employer statement: [Employer] commits to identifying hazards before and during work, eliminating them where practicable, controlling remaining risks, consulting affected workers, providing suitable instruction and resources, investigating incidents, and reviewing whether controls work. [Named executive] is accountable for implementing this program across [scope]. Workers may raise concerns through [route], and urgent hazards are escalated through [stop-work process].

Replace the brackets with real authority, budgets and reporting routes. The policy should say how management will act on concerns and how workers can participate. Identify the person who can stop or change unsafe work and the manager who can authorise resources. CCOHS's general program elements include individual responsibilities, committee or representative roles and review. Treat the statement as a commitment that can be checked, not a decorative opening page.

2. Legal and site requirements register

This register is the bridge between a broadly useful template and the applicable law. Record the *source*, not merely “OHS Act”. Where a requirement is conditional, document why it does or does not apply. Recheck after legislation changes, new sites, new equipment or a material change in workforce. A template should never be used to manufacture a legal conclusion about a particular employer.

3. Hazard assessment, controls and safe work

Program rule to adapt: Before a job or process starts, [named role] leads a formal assessment with affected workers, records task hazards and controls, assigns unresolved actions and checks that required controls are in place. At the workface, the crew checks changing conditions with a field-level assessment where appropriate. Stop the task when a serious hazard lacks a verified control, and escalate to [decision maker].

Link the formal assessment register, safe-work procedures, equipment instructions and permit system. Record how the hierarchy of controls is used: eliminate or change the task where practical, then isolation and engineering measures before relying only on administrative instructions or PPE. In Alberta, the OHS Code Part 2 states specific assessment, worker-participation and control duties. Other jurisdictions need their own legal check. N5-239 is the proposed formal assessment template; the N5-231–238 FLHA forms are narrower, point-of-work tools and should be linked only after their final routes are verified.

4. Training, competence and orientation

> Program rule to adapt: [Role] identifies required competence for each task and jurisdiction, checks evidence before assignment, gives site-specific orientation and records completion. A supervisor verifies that the person can apply the safe method. Retraining is triggered by [process/equipment change, incident, observed gap or legal requirement].

Keep a role-to-requirement matrix, an employee record and the source for each requirement. Separate legally required certification from employer instruction, client-specific tickets and refresher policy. A card's expiry date does not prove present competence, and a course completion does not replace task supervision. The training matrix should show who is due, who is overdue, the work restriction and the evidence location. Where a worker is temporarily reassigned, check the new task before the shift.

5. Inspections, maintenance and corrective actions

Distinguish routine worker pre-use checks, scheduled competent inspections and formal legal examinations. Assign every defect an owner, due date, interim control and verification of closure. A closed action needs evidence that the control works. If equipment is unsafe, remove it from service under the applicable procedure rather than leaving it on a spreadsheet for later.

6. Incident and near-miss response

> Program rule to adapt: Workers report injury, illness, near miss and dangerous condition to [contact] by [method]. The first response is to care for people and make the area safe. [Named role] checks immediate OHS regulator, compensation, sector and client notification duties for the applicable jurisdiction and records the decision and acknowledgement. Investigation follows [procedure] with worker/committee participation where required. Findings lead to assigned, verified corrective actions.

Do not use one national reporting deadline. The N5-240 Canadian incident-reporting decision guide is a proposed separate resource. The program should maintain its own current local notification contacts and trigger schedule. Protect personal health information and preserve the scene where local law requires it. A root-cause review should examine system conditions, not merely conclude that a worker should have been more careful.

7. Emergencies, first aid and occupational health

List credible emergencies for the actual site: fire, medical event, chemical release, fall, confined-space incident, violence, severe weather or process upset where relevant. Name the alarm, evacuation/muster arrangement, trained responders, first-aid resources, external contacts and drill method. Check site layout, travel time and lone-worker response. Specific first-aid staffing and supplies vary by jurisdiction and risk; do not copy a national kit list into a site plan. Include exposure monitoring, WHMIS and health surveillance where applicable to the work and law.

8. Worker participation, communication and contractors

Document how workers raise concerns, how the committee or representative receives information and how recommendations are answered. A committee meeting is only useful if an action owner closes the issue. For contractors, record who coordinates simultaneous work, site induction, permits and notices. The employer's program should remain understandable to a worker: where the current procedures are, whom to call, what stops work and how the worker learns of a change.

9. Program review and document control

Archive superseded versions, communicate changed procedures and verify that work actually changed. Review frequency should follow the applicable law and risk. CCOHS says a program must be evaluated and tailored. A small employer's program can be concise, but it still needs to work in practice. A larger employer may need site appendices, assurance checks and clear ownership across several teams.

Example: expanding from one shop to three sites

A fabrication company opens two field-service locations. Its original program names the workshop manager for all inspections and uses a single emergency address. That no longer describes the work. Management keeps a common policy and core methods, then adds each site's supervisor, hazards, local first-aid and emergency arrangements, inspection owners and contractor interfaces. Workers at the new sites review the changes. The training matrix identifies mobile tasks and client requirements; the formal hazard assessments cover field installation, not only shop fabrication. A program file copied three times without these changes would leave unclear who owns real controls.

Existing owner, links and Complys boundary

The live Canadian health-and-safety program guide owns the explanatory *what is a program and who needs one* query. This proposed page has the narrower copyable program shell with operating tables and owner fields. The live CA tools directory is an observed tools entry point. Check current repository and unpublished templates before release. The manifest's /ca/ohs-compliance-software route was not confirmed live in this check; verify its exact destination and the implemented plan before linking. A safe CTA is: Ask Complys to demonstrate how your current program documents and action records can be organised around your sites. Do not claim automatic legal applicability decisions, regulator filing or guaranteed compliance. The live guide contains broader product claims that require its own implementation verification; this template does not repeat them.

Source, claim, owner, product and writer-side QA register — 5 October 2026

Terminal writer-side disposition: READY. No Complys website or repository content was modified.