NATURE OF THE ORDER:

Province Wide Reporting Order.

BACKGROUND TO THE ORDER:

On November 6, 2018, and just one day after a Director of Inspection rescinded a province-wide stop work order that had been issued to our client, an Acting Director of Inspection at OH&S issued an Order to the client requiring that it create, provide, and regularly maintain (for a period of one month), a list of all currently active work sites in Alberta, and any other work sites in Alberta where work was anticipated to begin and our client was, or would be, an employer, contractor, or prime contractor (the “Reporting Order”).

The Reporting Order was issued under s. 60(1)(c) of the Act, following a “review of information from Alberta Occupational Health and Safety inspections and investigations”, from which the Acting Director of Inspection formed “the opinion that a danger to the health and safety of workers exists at work sites where [our client] was an employer, contractor, and/or prime contractor”.

RESULT OF THE REQUEST FOR REVIEW / APPEAL:

On February 26, 2019, the Director of Inspection rescinded the Order, noting in part that for an officer to issue an order pursuant to s. 60(1)(c) of the Act, they must form an opinion as to dangers to the health and safety of workers as a result of an inspection and investigation in relation to specific work sites, injuries or incidents, as opposed to a review of internal compliance information like the CMIS system [i.e. the database that OH&S uses to log its interactions with employers].

Comment