British Columbia site safety inspection report requirements

What British Columbia requires

• Every employer ensures regular inspections of all workplaces, including buildings, structures, grounds, excavations, tools, equipment, machinery and work methods and practices, at intervals that will prevent the development of unsafe working conditionsOHS Regulation (B.C. Reg. 296/97), s. 3.5 · B.C. Reg. 296/97, s. 3.5 (BC Laws, official consolidation)
• Unsafe or harmful conditions found in the course of an inspection must be remedied without delayOHS Regulation, s. 3.9 · B.C. Reg. 296/97, s. 3.9 (BC Laws, official consolidation)
• On a construction project with more than one employer, each employer tells the owner or prime contractor in advance of work likely to create a hazard for another employer's workers; where overlapping or adjoining work creates a hazard and the combined workforce is more than 5, the owner or prime contractor appoints a qualified coordinator and keeps on site the coordinator's name, a posted site drawing showing the project layout, first aid location, emergency transportation and evacuation marshalling station, and the construction safety proceduresOHS Regulation, s. 20.3
• A fall protection system is used where work is done at a place from which a fall of 3 m or more may occur, or where a lower fall carries a risk of injury greater than impact on a flat surface; guardrails or similar fall restraint are used when practicable, otherwise another fall restraint system, then fall arrest or rope access, and only then work procedures acceptable to WorkSafeBC; workers are instructed in the area's fall protection system before enteringOHS Regulation, s. 11.2
• The employer has a written fall protection plan where workers are not protected by permanent guardrails and a fall of 7.5 m or more may occur, or where work procedures replace fall protection equipment; the plan is available at the workplace before work with a risk of falling beginsOHS Regulation, s. 11.3
• Equipment used in a fall protection system is inspected by a qualified person before use on each workshift, kept free from substances and conditions that could make it deteriorate, and maintained in good working orderOHS Regulation, s. 11.9
• A stairway made of at least framing, treads and a handrail is provided to each floor level before construction of the next floor or deck begins, and its treads must not create a tripping or slipping hazardOHS Regulation, s. 20.5 (5)
• Before a worker enters an excavation over 1.2 m deep, or comes closer to its side than the excavation's depth, the sides are sloped, benched or supported (as a qualified registered professional or engineer specifies, by the regulation's tables, or by trench boxes, shoring cages or other effective means)OHS Regulation, s. 20.81 (1)
• Before excavating or drilling with powered equipment, the location of all underground utility services is accurately determined; where workers enter a trench over 1.2 m deep, a safe entry and exit point is within 8 m of them; excavated material is kept at least 60 cm back from the edge of a trench and 1.2 m from any other excavationOHS Regulation, s. 20.79 (1) · OHS Regulation, ss. 20.87 (2), 20.90 (1)
• Excavation work follows the written, certified instructions of a qualified registered professional, kept at the site, when the excavation is more than 6 m deep, is next to an improvement or structure, is subject to vibration or hydrostatic pressure, or the ground slopes away from the edge steeper than 3 horizontal to 1 vertical; a professional engineer's instructions where it uses support structuresOHS Regulation, s. 20.78