Changes to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code Take Effect March 31, 2025 | Stikeman Elliott LLP

In December 2024, Ministerial Order 2024-12 introduced important amendments to Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Code (the “Code”), expanding and streamlining workplace violence and harassment prevention requirements. These updates also bolster protections in high-risk retail environments, explosives handling, and the oil, gas, and geothermal sectors.

The amendments to the Code came following a review aimed at modernizing workplace health and safety regulations. This review included public consultations through an online survey with input from workers, employers, and health and safety professionals. These changes aim to reflect updated best practices, technological advancements, and efforts to streamline regulatory requirements while aligning the Code with other Canadian jurisdictions to enhance labour mobility and inter-provincial trade.

These changes take effect on March 31, 2025, and require employers to take proactive steps to ensure compliance.

Workplace Violence and Harassment Prevention

Part 27 of the Code, which covers workplace violence and harassment, was amended to update and expand worker protections while easing the administrative burden on employers.

1. Violence and Harassment as Workplace Hazards

Section 389 of the Code, which defined violence and harassment as hazards under Part 2 of the Code (governing hazard assessment, elimination, and control) has been repealed. This does not mean, however, that employers no longer need to conduct hazard assessments for violence and harassment. Violence and harassment remain hazards that need to be addressed under Part 2 of the Code.

2. Consolidated Violence and Harassment Prevention Plan

Sections 390, 390.1, 390.2, and 390.4 – 390.6, which mandated separate violence prevention and harassment prevention policies and plans, have also been repealed. Instead of maintaining two parallel violence and harassment prevention plans, employers will now be required to adopt one consolidated plan.

3. Revised Employer Responsibilities for Violence and Harassment Prevention Plans

The requirement for specific policy statements – such as stating that the policy is not intended to discourage a worker from exercising their rights pursuant to any other law – has been replaced with procedural mandates.

Now, employers must ensure that a consolidated violence and harassment plan includes the following elements:

Hazard Identification and Control: Measures to eliminate or control the hazards of violence and harassment where possible.

Communication with Workers: Procedures to inform workers about the nature and extent of violence and harassment hazards, including information related to specific or general threats that exist or may exist.

Reporting and Investigation: Procedures for reporting violence or harassment and investigating complaints and incidents.

Confidentiality: Provisions to protect the confidentiality of all parties involved in a complaint or incident, allowing disclosure only when necessary for investigation, corrective action, legal compliance, or worker safety.

4. Reviewing and Updating the Plan

Employers must review the violence and harassment prevention plan:

1. when an incident occurs that indicates a review is required;
2. if there is a change in the work or work site that could affect the potential for violence or harassment to occur;
3. if the Joint Health and Safety Committee or Health and Safety Representative requests a review; or
4. at least once every three years, even if no incidents have occurred.

The requirement to review the plan after workplace changes is new. This ensures that workplace changes that impact safety will trigger a reassessment of violence and harassment risks.

Previously, any incidents involving violence or harassment triggered a review of the plan. Now, reviews are only required if an incident indicates that one is necessary.

Finally, these amendments require employers to train workers whenever the plan is updated.

5. Reporting Requirements

The recent amendments removed the requirement under s. 391.1 of the Code to provide a copy of an investigation report to the Director appointed under Alberta’s Occupational Health and Safety Act, the Joint Health and Safety Committee, the Health and Safety Representative, or workers.

These amendments also added the requirement for an employer to carry out an investigation into the “circumstances” surrounding the injury, illness, incident, or worker exposure to violence and harassment.

Employers must still prepare a report outlining the circumstances of, and the corrective action taken in response to, violence and harassment incidents and ensure a copy of the report is readily available and provided to an officer on demand.

Additional Protection for Workers

1. Entitlement to Pay

Previously, if a worker sought treatment arising from an incident of workplace violence or harassment, the employer could not deduct pay or benefits for that time. The amendments strengthen this protection by explicitly stating that the worker is considered “at work” for post-incident treatment during regular work hours.

2. Enhanced Security for High-Risk Worksites

Workers in late-night retail environments – such as gas stations and convenience stores – face higher risks of robbery and violence. The Code amendments recognize this by updating workplace-specific requirements in these settings.

In particular, the amendments updated the language requiring employers to ensure mandatory prepayment for fuel at gas stations and added that personal emergency transmitters must be worn by (not just provided to) workers working alone.

Blasting & Explosives Handling and Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Worksite Safety

The amendments introduce stricter safety standards for blasting, explosives handling, and oil and gas operations. Employers must now enhance worker protections and comply with more rigorous storage, transport, and handling protocols for explosives. In the oil, gas, and geothermal sectors, updated monitoring, inspection, and hazard control measures aim to reduce exposure to harmful substances and prevent equipment-related risks. Notably:

1. Blasting and Explosives

The amendments enhance safety regulations for blasting and explosives handling, aligning them with industry best practices. Key changes include:

• A new requirement that employers retain blaster’s reports for at least two years from the date the report was made;
• Updated requirements for storing, handling, and transporting perforating guns, exempting them from magazine storage and certain transport restrictions if alternative safety measures prevent unintended detonation. Perforating guns must still be secured against hazards, properly labeled with “Danger Explosives” signage, and kept separate from detonators until priming;
• Clarification that stemming, explosives removal, and storage requirements apply to the use of explosives at all work sites, not just at mines and mine sites;
• Updated safety measures for radiofrequency transmitters near electric detonators, ensuring they adhere to the greater of industry safety guidelines or manufacturer specifications;
• A new minimum length requirement of one metre for safety fuse assemblies; and
• Revised misfire handling procedures, allowing employers and blasters to remove misfires using a jet of water (as previously required) or “another method that does not create a hazard to workers.”

2. Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Worksite Safety

Part 37 has been renamed from “Oil and Gas Wells” to “Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Energy” to better reflect its expanded scope. Key changes include:

• New safety requirements mandating wind direction indicators and atmospheric monitoring (if a harmful substance may exist) at all oil and gas work sites, not just for well swabbing operations;
• Clarifications on emergency escape system inspections, specifying that escape equipment must withstand a pull test load as defined by the manufacturer’s specifications or those certified by a professional engineer, replacing the previous fixed requirement of 13.3 kilonewtons;
• Updated pipe storage regulations, shifting from prescriptive trailer design requirements to performance-based safety measures, which include ensuring all stored tubulars are secured to prevent falls, free of fluids before storage, and safely accessible to workers; and
• Enhanced safety protocols for drill stem testing, requiring hydrogen sulfide-containing fluids to be displaced with drilling fluid and circulated to an enclosed tank, as flare pits are no longer a permitted circulation destination.

What’s Next for Employers

With compliance required by March 31, 2025, employers should:

1. review and update workplace policies to ensure they reflect the new consolidated violence and harassment prevention plan requirements (the Government has made a template available here).
2. plan for regular reviews following workplace changes or at least every three years.
3. train workers whenever violence and harassment prevention policies and procedures are updated, including as a result of the amendments to the Code.
4. implement new security measures in high-risk retail environments, including mandatory fuel prepayment and requirements that employees wear emergency transmitters when working alone.
5. ensure compliance with stricter protocols in blasting, explosives handling, and oil, gas, and geothermal operations.

These amendments signal a further shift toward greater employer accountability and proactive risk management. They were made in response to workplace changes, technological advancements, and concerns about outdated regulations that resulted in inefficiencies and compliance burdens. Employers should ensure that they are fully aware of the changes that have been made and affect them, in particular, their obligations with respect to harassment and violence prevention (and that their consolidated prevention plan reflects those obligations).

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