Canada Labour Code

Marginal note:Powers of health and safety officers

• 141 (1) Subject to section 143.2, a health and safety officer may, in carrying out the officer’s duties and at any reasonable time, enter any work place controlled by an employer and, in respect of any work place, may

  • (a) conduct examinations, tests, inquiries, investigations and inspections or direct the employer to conduct them;

  • (b) take or remove for analysis, samples of any material or substance or any biological, chemical or physical agent;

  • (c) be accompanied or assisted by any person and bring any equipment that the officer deems necessary to carry out the officer’s duties;

  • (d) take or remove, for testing, material or equipment if there is no reasonable alternative to doing so;

  • (e) take photographs and make sketches;

  • (f) direct the employer to ensure that any place or thing specified by the officer not be disturbed for a reasonable period pending an examination, test, inquiry, investigation or inspection in relation to the place or thing;

  • (g) direct any person not to disturb any place or thing specified by the officer for a reasonable period pending an examination, test, inquiry, investigation or inspection in relation to the place or thing;

  • (h) direct the employer to produce documents and information relating to the health and safety of the employer’s employees or the safety of the work place and to permit the officer to examine and make copies of or take extracts from those documents and that information;

  • (i) direct the employer or an employee to make or provide statements, in the form and manner that the officer may specify, respecting working conditions and material and equipment that affect the health or safety of employees;

  • (j) direct the employer or an employee or a person designated by either of them to accompany the officer while the officer is in the work place; and

  • (k) meet with any person in private or, at the request of the person, in the presence of the person’s legal counsel or union representative.

• Marginal note:Officer not on premises

  (2) A health and safety officer may issue a direction under subsection (1) whether or not the officer is in the work place at the time the direction is issued.

• Marginal note:Return of material and equipment

  (3) A health and safety officer who has, under paragraph (1)(d), taken or removed material or equipment for testing shall, if requested by the person from whom it was taken or removed, return the material or equipment to the person after testing is completed unless the material or equipment is required for the purposes of a prosecution under this Part.

• Marginal note:Investigation of deaths

  (4) A health and safety officer shall investigate every death of an employee that occurred in the work place or while the employee was working, or that was the result of an injury that occurred in the work place or while the employee was working.

• Marginal note:Investigation of motor vehicle accidents

  (5) If the death results from a motor vehicle accident on a public road, as part of the investigation the health and safety officer shall obtain a copy of any police report as soon as possible after the accident.

• Marginal note:Report by officer

  (6) Within ten days after completing a written report on the findings of an inquiry or investigation, the health and safety officer shall provide the employer and the work place committee or the health and safety representative with a copy of the report.

• Marginal note:Certificate of authority

  (7) The Minister shall provide every health and safety officer with a certificate of authority and, when carrying out duties under this Part, the officer shall show the certificate to any person who asks to see it.

• Marginal note:Limitation of liability

  (8) A health and safety officer is not personally liable for anything done or omitted to be done by the officer in good faith under the authority or purported authority of this Part.

• Marginal note:Duty of Her Majesty

  (9) Notwithstanding subsection (8), and for greater certainty, Her Majesty in right of Canada is not relieved of any civil liability to which Her Majesty in right of Canada may otherwise be subject.