The short answer
Under Part 2 of the Occupational Health and Safety Code (Alberta Regulation 191/2021), the employer must assess the work site and identify existing and potential hazards before work begins. The results and the controls must be written down and dated, affected workers must be involved, and the assessment must be repeated when things change.
This applies to every employer, regardless of size. Employers who regularly employ 20 or more workers also need a health and safety program under section 16 of the OHS Act. Employers with fewer than 20 still need documented hazard assessment and control and an emergency response plan.
What Part 2 of the OHS Code requires
| Section | What it requires |
|---|---|
| 7(1) Hazard assessment | Before work begins at a work site, or before a new work site is built, assess the site and identify existing and potential hazards. |
| 7(2) Written report | Prepare a report of the results, including the methods used to control or eliminate the hazards. |
| 7(3) Date | Record the date the assessment was prepared or revised. |
| 7(4) Repeat | Repeat the assessment at reasonably practicable intervals to stop unsafe conditions developing, when a new work process is introduced, when a work process or operation changes, and before significant additions or alterations to the site. |
| 8(1) Worker participation | Involve affected workers in the assessment and in controlling or eliminating the hazards. |
| 9 Elimination and control | Eliminate the hazard where reasonably practicable. If not, use engineering controls, then administrative controls to reduce exposure as low as reasonably achievable, then PPE. A combination can be used where it gives workers greater protection. |
| 10 Emergency control | In an emergency, only competent workers needed to correct the hazard may be exposed. The written and dated requirements in 7(2) and 7(3) don't apply during the emergency action itself. |
How the OHS Act fits in
- Employers (section 3) must protect the health and safety of their workers and others at the site, make sure workers are aware of the hazards of the work, provide competent supervision and adequate training, and keep information about hazards and controls available to workers, committees and the prime contractor.
- Supervisors (section 4) must take reasonable precautions to protect the workers they supervise, make sure those workers follow the rules, and warn them about known or reasonably foreseeable hazards in their work area.
- Workers (section 5) must take reasonable care, use the required equipment and PPE, take part in training and report unsafe conditions.
- Prime contractors (section 10) are needed on construction and oil and gas sites, and other designated sites, where two or more employers are working. They must set up a system to coordinate safety between employers and tell site parties about existing or potential hazards. This doesn't replace each employer's own hazard assessment.
Formal and site-specific assessments
Alberta's government handbook describes two levels. The formal hazard assessment covers your overall operations, broken into jobs and tasks. The site-specific assessment (often called a field level hazard assessment or FLHA) covers what has changed at a particular site: weather, new contractors, new equipment, non-routine work or a crew moving to a new location.
If a site-specific assessment finds a hazard the formal assessment missed, update the formal one. For individual high-risk tasks, a job safety analysis is a common way to do the task-by-task breakdown.
Canada / JSA drafts
Writing it up is the part that gets skipped.
Explain the job out loud and SOPmate drafts an editable hazard assessment your crew can review and sign.
iPhone and iPad. Not on iPhone? Email support@sopmate.ai to hear about Android.
How to do it in practice
List the jobs and tasks
Break your work into jobs, and each job into tasks. Include routine and non-routine work, maintenance and emergency situations.
Identify hazards with the workers
Walk the site with the people who do the work. They know where things go wrong. Record their involvement, because section 8 requires it.
Pick controls in order
Eliminate first. Then engineering controls, administrative controls and PPE, in that order. Write the control next to each hazard.
Write it, date it, make it available
One page can be enough for a small operation. Keep it where affected workers can see it, and go through it with them before work starts.
Repeat it when things change
New process, new equipment, a change in the work, major site alterations, or at regular intervals. Re-date it each time.
Fines and penalties
Alberta has three levels of enforcement short of a court case, plus prosecution. You don't need an injury to be penalized for a missing or out-of-date hazard assessment.
| What goes wrong | What you can face |
|---|---|
| No written or dated assessment, not repeated after a change, or workers not involved | An order from an OHS officer to comply, and possibly an administrative penalty of up to $10,000 per day, per contravention (2026). Several contraventions can be penalized together. |
| Easily observed breaches, such as a worker not using required fall protection | A violation ticket of $100 to $500 per violation, plus a 20% victim surcharge (2026). Tickets can go to workers, supervisors and employers. |
| An officer finds a danger that hasn't been controlled | A stop work or stop use order until the hazard is dealt with. Failing to follow a stop work order carries a fine of up to $1,000,000, up to 12 months in jail, or both. |
| Prosecution under the OHS Act (section 48) | First offence: up to $500,000, up to 6 months in jail, or both, plus up to $30,000 a day for a continuing offence. Second or subsequent offence: up to $1,000,000, up to 12 months, or both, plus up to $60,000 a day. |
| Someone is seriously hurt or killed | A missing or ignored hazard assessment is strong evidence that the employer didn't do what was reasonably practicable. Courts can also order creative sentences, and Criminal Code charges are possible in the worst cases. |
Penalty amounts can change. Check Alberta OHS for current figures before relying on them.
Common mistakes
- Using a generic assessment from another company. It has to apply to your site and your work.
- Writing it once and filing it. Section 7(4) requires it to be repeated when things change.
- Doing it in the office without the crew. Worker involvement is a requirement, not a nice-to-have.
- Jumping straight to PPE. Section 9 requires you to consider elimination and engineering controls first.