The short answer
In British Columbia, the duty to identify and control hazards comes from the Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. Employers must fix hazardous conditions and make workers aware of foreseeable hazards. WorkSafeBC's guidance says a systematic risk assessment is how you meet those duties: identify hazards, decide who could be harmed, rate the risk, record what you found and review it.
Some parts of the Regulation also require specific risk assessments, for example for workplace violence (section 4.28), working alone (section 4.20.2) and musculoskeletal injury risks (section 4.48).
Duties under the Workers Compensation Act
| Who | Section | Key duties |
|---|---|---|
| Employer | 21 | Ensure the health and safety of its workers and other workers at a workplace where its work is done. Remedy hazardous conditions, make workers aware of foreseeable hazards, set up OHS policies and programs, and provide equipment, training and supervision. |
| Supervisor | 23 | Ensure the health and safety of workers under their direct supervision, know the rules that apply to that work, and make workers aware of known or reasonably foreseeable hazards in their area. |
| Prime contractor | 24 | At a multiple-employer workplace, coordinate health and safety activities and take all reasonably practicable steps to set up and keep a system that ensures compliance. Each employer must give the prime contractor the name of its supervisor on site. |
| Owner | 25 | Keep the land and premises safe, and give the employer or prime contractor the information it knows that's needed to identify and control hazards. |
Under section 13, the prime contractor is the directing contractor or other person named in a written agreement with the owner. If there's no agreement, the owner is the prime contractor.
OHS programs (Part 3 of the Regulation)
- Section 3.1: a formal OHS program is required if you have 20 or more workers and at least one workplace rated moderate or high risk, or 50 or more workers. Check Schedule 3A of the Regulation for how your type of work is rated.
- Section 3.2: smaller employers need a less formal program built on regular monthly health and safety meetings with workers, with records of what was discussed.
- Section 3.3: a formal program must include a policy, regular inspections, written instructions for workers, management meetings, incident investigations, records and statistics, and worker instruction and supervision.
- Section 3.5: regular inspections of buildings, equipment, tools and work methods, often enough to stop unsafe conditions developing. Section 3.9 requires unsafe conditions to be fixed without delay.
- Section 3.23: young and new workers must get site-specific orientation before they start, including hazards, PPE, emergency procedures and their right to refuse unsafe work.
Canada / JSA drafts
That's a lot of paperwork for a small crew.
Explain the job out loud and SOPmate drafts an editable hazard assessment you can check with your crew.
iPhone and iPad. Not on iPhone? Email support@sopmate.ai to hear about Android.
Construction sites (Part 20)
- Notice of project (section 20.2): the owner, or the prime contractor engaged by the owner, must give WorkSafeBC written notice at least 24 hours before work starts on certain projects. Examples include labour and materials over $100,000, work designed by a professional engineer, buildings over 2 storeys or 6 metres, and excavations over 1.2 metres deep that workers may enter. The notice must be posted on site.
- Coordination (section 20.3): each employer must tell the owner or prime contractor in advance about any work that could create a hazard for another employer's workers. Where overlapping work creates hazards and more than five workers are on site, a qualified coordinator must be appointed and the site must keep a posted site drawing and written construction safety procedures.
- Qualified supervision: various Part 20 sections require qualified supervisors or persons for specific work, such as formwork and falsework.
In practice, most BC construction employers meet these duties with a written site-specific hazard assessment, a JSA for high-risk tasks and a field level hazard assessment at the start of each shift.
Fines and penalties
WorkSafeBC can act without going to court. Administrative penalties are the main tool, and they can be large.
| What goes wrong | What you can face |
|---|---|
| Hazards not identified or controlled, no OHS program, or prime contractor coordination missing | An inspection order to comply. WorkSafeBC can also impose an administrative penalty (section 95). The maximum for 2026 is $816,148.69. |
| How the penalty is worked out | The base amount is generally tied to the employer's payroll and the nature of the violation. It can be increased for high-risk or wilful violations, or a substantially similar violation in the previous 3 years. No penalty applies if the employer proves it exercised due diligence. |
| Lower-risk violations | An OHS citation (section 94), with a maximum of $1,312.96 (2026 indexed figure). |
| An officer finds a serious, uncontrolled hazard | An order to stop the work or stop using equipment until the hazard is dealt with. |
| Prosecution under the Act (section 102) | First conviction: up to $893,241.75, up to 6 months in jail, or both. Subsequent conviction: up to $1,786,483.47, up to 12 months, or both. Daily fines apply for continuing offences (2026 indexed figures). |
| Someone is seriously hurt or killed | Penalties at the top of the range, prosecution of the employer and supervisors, and possible Criminal Code charges. |
These amounts are adjusted for inflation every January. Check WorkSafeBC's CPI adjustment page for the current figures.
Common mistakes
- One assessment for every site. WorkSafeBC says to assess each work location separately.
- Assuming the prime contractor's documents cover you. Each employer still has its own duties under section 21.
- No record of crew involvement. Record who took part and what they raised.
- Never reviewing it. WorkSafeBC suggests reviewing when equipment, materials or processes change, and at least yearly.