Canada–Nova Scotia Offshore Area Occupational Health and Safety Regulations (SOR/2021-248)

Marginal note:Ramps

100 Every employer must ensure that every ramp installed at a workplace under its control is

• (a) securely fastened in place;

• (b) braced if necessary to ensure its stability; and

• (c) equipped with cleats or surfaced in a manner that provides a safe footing for users.

Marginal note:Fixed ladders

• 101 (1) Every employer must ensure that any fixed ladder installed at a workplace under its control, other than one installed as part of a scaffold,

  • (a) is installed with its underside angled not less than 75 degrees and not more than 90 degrees from the ground;

  • (b) is securely held in place at the top and bottom and at intervals of not more than 3 m;

  • (c) has rungs that are at least 15 cm from the wall, at uniformly spaced intervals of not more than 30 cm, and do not impede any employee from safely exiting the ladder onto a platform or landing;

  • (d) has side rails that extend not less than 90 cm above each landing or platform;

  • (e) is not coated with material that may hide flaws affecting its integrity;

  • (f) if it is more than 6 m in length, is fitted, if feasible, with a protective cage for the portion of its length that is more than 2.5 m above its bottom; and

  • (g) if it is more than 9 m in length, is equipped with landings or platforms, at intervals of no more than 6 m, that are

    • (i) at least 0.36 m² in area, and

    • (ii) fitted at their outer edges with a guard-rail and toe board.

• Marginal note:Use

  (2) While ascending or descending a fixed ladder at a workplace, every employee must

  • (a) face the ladder;

  • (b) maintain a three-point contact with the ladder; and

  • (c) carry any tools, equipment or materials in a pouch or holster or in another secure manner.

• Marginal note:Prohibition

  (3) An employee must not use a metal or wire-bound fixed ladder if there is a risk of it coming into contact with an energized electrical conductor or circuit part or with energized electrical equipment.

Marginal note:Portable ladders

• 102 (1) Every employer must ensure that any portable ladder used at a workplace under its control

  • (a) conforms to CSA Group standard Z11, Portable ladders;

  • (b) has a minimum load rating of 113.4 kg;

  • (c) if used, other than as part of a scaffold system, on a marine installation or structure that is used for the drilling for or production of petroleum products, is made of a non-combustible material; and

  • (d) is not coated with material that may hide flaws affecting its integrity.

• Marginal note:Use

  (2) An employee who uses a portable ladder at a workplace must do so in accordance with CSA Group standard Z11, Portable ladders, and must ensure that, while the ladder is in use,

  • (a) it is placed on a firm and stable footing and positioned so that it is not necessary to use the underside;

  • (b) it is secured in such a manner that it cannot be dislodged accidentally from its position; and

  • (c) unless it is a self-supporting ladder, the upper portion of its side rails rests on a bearing surface capable of safely withstanding the load imposed on it.

• Marginal note:Prohibitions

  (3) An employee must not

  • (a) position a portable ladder in an elevator shaft or hoistway when that space is being used for hoisting;

  • (b) position a portable ladder near moving equipment that is under a load;

  • (c) use a portable ladder in a manner that may compromise its stability or the stability of any person on it; or

  • (d) use a metal or wire-bound portable ladder if there is a risk of it coming into contact with an energized electrical conductor or circuit part or with energized electrical equipment.

PART 21Scaffolding and Platforms

Marginal note:Definition of elevating work platform

103 In this Part, elevating work platform means a type of integral chassis aerial platform that has an adjustable position platform that is supported from ground level by an articulating or telescoping boom or by a vertically oriented, telescoping or elevating mast.

Marginal note:Use — general

• 104 (1) Every employer must ensure that no employee uses a scaffold, suspended work platform or elevating work platform at a workplace under the employer’s control unless

  • (a) the employer has authorized its use;

  • (b) the employee has been trained and instructed in its safe and proper use; and

  • (c) it has been inspected and certified by a competent person as being fit for the use to which the employee intends to put it.

• Marginal note:Hazardous conditions

  (2) The employer must ensure that no employee uses a scaffold, suspended work platform or elevating work platform in environmental conditions that are likely to increase the risk to the health or safety of the employee unless its use in those conditions is necessary to remove a hazard or rescue a person.

Marginal note:Prevention of contact

105 The employer must ensure that, if there is a risk of a person or equipment coming into contact with a scaffold, suspended work platform or elevating work platform in a manner that would pose a hazard, a barricade is installed or, if that is not feasible, another means of preventing the contact is provided.

Marginal note:Scaffolds

• 106 (1) Every employer must ensure, with respect to any scaffold used at a workplace under its control, that

  • (a) its configuration at the workplace is designed by a competent person;

  • (b) it is erected, used, inspected, dismantled and stored in accordance with CSA Group standard CAN/CSA-Z797, Code of practice for access scaffold;

  • (c) if used to support a temporary floor or subjected to loads that could cause it to overturn, it is erected and used in accordance with written instructions approved by a professional engineer;

  • (d) either it is capable of supporting at least four times the load that is likely to be imposed on it or it has been approved by a professional engineer and consists of components that have been manufactured in accordance with a quality management system;

  • (e) its footings and supports are capable of supporting all static and dynamic loads that are likely to be imposed on them;

  • (f) to the extent feasible, it uses only manufactured platforms;

  • (g) its platforms or planks are adequately secured and installed in a manner that avoids gaps and overlapping;

  • (h) all of its wooden components are treated with a transparent fire retardant coating and are stored and maintained so that their integrity and fire retardant properties are preserved;

  • (i) all of its components are compatible with each other;

  • (j) if it is a continuous run scaffold or a double-pole tube and coupler scaffold, it has internal horizontal cross-bracing installed in the bay immediately adjacent to and at the level of a building tie, unless equivalent bracing is achieved using manufactured scaffold planks secured by end hooks to provide a fully decked work platform at that level; and

  • (k) any vertical ladder more than 9 m in length that is used with it has a landing or platform at least every 6 m.

• Marginal note:Ladder jack scaffold

  (2) Every employer must ensure that no ladder jack scaffold is used at a workplace under its control.

Marginal note:Elevating work platforms

107 Every employer must ensure, with respect to any elevating work platform at a workplace under its control, that

• (a) its rated capacity is marked on it in a location that is clearly visible to any person using it;

• (b) it is equipped with controls of a continuous pressure type that return to the neutral or stop position when released;

• (c) it is equipped with an emergency stop device that is red in colour and located within easy reach of the person operating it;

• (d) if its lifting mechanism creates a shear hazard to employees, that mechanism is adequately guarded or identified with signs, decals or similar markings warning of the hazard; and

• (e) if it is self-propelled or mobile, it is used only with the approval of the Chief Safety Officer.

PART 22Fall Protection and Rope Access

Marginal note:Risk of falling

108 The risk of a person falling from any of the following locations is a prescribed risk for the purpose of paragraph 210.02(2)(a) of the Act:

• (a) 3 m or more above the nearest safe surface or above water;

• (b) any distance above a surface or thing that could cause injury or illness to the person; or

• (c) a portable ladder, if

  • (i) there are high wind or wave conditions,

  • (ii) the person is performing a task that does not permit them to maintain their centre of gravity between the ladder’s side rails,

  • (iii) the person is performing a task that is not a light duty task, or

  • (iv) the person is performing a task for more than a short duration at any one location.

Marginal note:Means of protection

• 109 (1) Every employer must ensure that whichever of the following means of fall protection is most appropriate in the circumstances is provided whenever a person at a workplace under its control is in a location referred to in section 108:

  • (a) a guard-rail;

  • (b) temporary flooring;

  • (c) a travel restraint system that conforms to and has been selected in accordance with — and every component of which conforms to and has been selected in accordance with — all applicable CSA Group standards in the Z259 series;

  • (d) a fall-arrest system that conforms to and has been selected in accordance with — and every component of which conforms to and has been selected in accordance with — all applicable CSA Group standards in the Z259 series; or

  • (e) a safety net that, unless it is to be used in or around the helicopter landing deck area of a marine installation or structure, conforms to ANSI/American Society of Safety Professionals (ASSP) standard A10.11, Safety Requirements for Personnel Nets and has been installed, inspected and tested in accordance with that standard.

• Marginal note:Occupational health and safety program

  (2) Every occupational health and safety program must

  • (a) set out factors, including efficacy and feasibility, to be considered by the employer in determining the most appropriate means of fall protection for the purpose of subsection (1);

  • (b) address the assembly, maintenance, inspection, use and disassembly, as the case may be, of all means of fall protection provided and their components, including by establishing a schedule for their inspection; and

  • (c) if fall-arrest systems are to be provided at the workplace, address the risks associated with the potential for swing as a result of anchorage placement when a fall-arrest system is being used.

• Marginal note:Fall-arrest system required

  (3) Despite subsection (1) and paragraph (2)(a), the employer must ensure that a fall-arrest system described in paragraph (1)(d) is provided to every person

  • (a) who is on a fixed ladder more than 6 m in length;

  • (b) who is on an elevating work platform, as defined in section 103; or

  • (c) who uses a work-positioning system.

• Marginal note:Use

  (4) The employer must ensure that any means of protection referred to in paragraphs (1)(c) to (e) that it provides is used in accordance with the standards referred to in those paragraphs and, in the case of a fall-arrest system provided to a person referred to in paragraph (3)(b), is secured to an anchorage point that is approved by the platform’s manufacturer or a professional engineer.

• Marginal note:Safety net

  (5) The employer must ensure that any safety net provided

  • (a) is positioned as close as feasible to, and in any case no further than 4.6 m below, the area from which there is a risk of a fall;

  • (b) extends at least 2.4 m beyond that area on all sides or, if the area is a gangway, at least 1.8 m beyond both sides;

  • (c) is positioned and maintained so that its maximum deflection does not permit any portion of a person who falls into it to come into contact with any other surface;

  • (d) is kept free of debris, obstructions or intervening objects that could be struck by a person falling into it; and

  • (e) is, if connected to another safety net, connected using splice joints that are at least as strong as the weakest of the nets.

• Marginal note:Components

  (6) The employer must ensure that

  • (a) all anchorages used in a means of fall protection are capable of withstanding the following forces in any direction in which the force may be applied:

    • (i) 22 kN, in the case of non-engineered anchorages, and

    • (ii) twice the maximum arresting force anticipated, in the case of engineered anchorages;

  • (b) any self-retracting device used in a means of fall protection is

    • (i) anchored above the user’s head, unless the manufacturer’s instructions allow for a different anchorage location, and

    • (ii) used in a manner that

      • (A) minimizes the hazards of swinging, and

      • (B) limits the distance that a user who fell would drop to less than 1.2 m; and

  • (c) any lanyard used in a fall-arrest system is equipped with an energy absorber, unless

    • (i) the lifeline used is self-retracting, or

    • (ii) the fall-arrest system is designed by a competent person to

      • (A) limit the free fall to less than 1.2 m and the arresting force to less than 4 kN, and

      • (B) prevent the user from coming into contact with any unsafe surface.