Federal Occupational Health and Safety Amendments

Summary#

These are final amendments (SOR/2025-79) to several workplace health and safety rules made under the Canada Labour Code. They mostly tidy up wording, update some forms, and change a few reporting fields; the changes took effect on March 26, 2025.

What it does#

• Applies to a group of federal occupational health and safety rules, including:
  • Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
  • Aviation Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
  • On Board Trains Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
  • Maritime Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
  • Oil and Gas Occupational Safety and Health Regulations
  • Policy Committees, Work Place Committees and Health and Safety Representatives Regulations
  • Consequential changes to the Administrative Monetary Penalties (Canada Labour Code) Regulations.
• Moves the definition of “readily available” into the main interpretation sections so it’s easier to find.
• Replaces language using “disease” with “illness” in several places to match recent changes to the law.
• Clarifies wording about ignition risk and airborne chemicals, and sets the allowable concentration at 10% of the lower explosive limit in relevant situations.
• Updates first-aid wording to explicitly cover “illness” and requires employers to keep written first-aid instructions up to date.
• Adds clear, fillable hazardous-occurrence and annual-report forms into the regulation schedules so the forms are visible inside the regulations.
• Removes an internal “employer identification number” field from several reporting forms and requires the employer’s business number instead.
• Requires the employer chairperson of a workplace committee to give the employer a copy of the committee’s annual report and for the employer to post it for two months.
• Updates the administrative penalties schedule so enforcement references match the amended rules.
• These are administrative and clarifying changes; no new substantive safety duties are introduced. The amendments come into force on the day they were published (see Summary).

Who's affected#

• Federally regulated employers and employees across industries such as aviation, rail, shipping, oil and gas, and other sectors covered by the Canada Labour Code. This includes the federal public service and federal Crown corporations.
• People who handle reporting and record-keeping: health and safety officers, workplace committee members, and those who complete hazardous-occurrence or annual reports.
• Employment and Social Development Canada’s Labour Program, which runs the reporting system and enforcement.
• Small federally regulated private-sector businesses: the analysis estimates about 21,014 small businesses (roughly 92% of federally regulated employers) will be affected by the new requirement to provide a business number on some reports.
• If it is unclear whether a workplace is federally regulated, the source does not provide guidance on that—affected employers should check whether the Canada Labour Code applies to them.

Why it matters#

• Clearer wording and a single location for “readily available” reduce confusion about what employers must keep on hand and how rules are interpreted.
• The change to the ignition wording and the explicit 10% lower-explosive-limit threshold gives a clearer safety standard for airborne flammable chemicals.
• Putting the hazardous-occurrence and annual-report forms directly into the regulations makes it easier for employers and committees to find and use the correct forms.
• Replacing an internal employer ID with the business number is intended to make reporting and tracking simpler for the government—but it is a small new paperwork step for employers. The regulatory analysis estimates an annualized administrative cost of $25,425 total (about $0.16 per business, annualized).
• Updating the penalties schedule keeps enforcement aligned with the new wording so compliance issues can still be dealt with using existing tools.