OHS Order — Alberta
An OHS order is a written direction issued by an Alberta OHS officer requiring an employer (or other party) to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, correct a specific hazard, or stop work until conditions are safe. Non-compliance can result in fines or prosecution.
An OHS order in Alberta is a formal written direction from an OHS officer that requires the recipient — usually an employer, prime contractor, or supervisor — to take specific action to comply with the Occupational Health and Safety Act, Regulation, or Code. Orders are issued after an inspection, complaint investigation, or incident investigation.
Types of OHS orders in Alberta
Stop-work orders require all work (or a specific type of work) to stop immediately until the hazard is corrected and the officer is satisfied. They are issued when an officer believes work is creating an immediate danger to workers.
Compliance orders require the employer to correct a specific condition or practice within a set timeframe. The timeframe depends on the severity of the hazard — immediate hazards get immediate deadlines; administrative issues may get days or weeks.
Orders to produce documents require the employer to provide records, programs, or other documents to the officer.
What triggers an OHS order
Orders most often follow: a scheduled or unannounced site inspection; a worker complaint about unsafe conditions; a serious incident or fatality investigation; or a referral from another government body.
The officer does not need to observe an incident to issue an order — they only need to believe a contravention of the OHS Act, Regulation, or Code exists or is likely to exist.
What happens after an order is issued
The employer must comply with the order by the deadline. Compliance typically means correcting the hazard, documenting the correction, and notifying the officer. For stop-work orders, the officer usually needs to return to the site and confirm the hazard is resolved before work can resume.
Failure to comply with an OHS order is a separate offence from the original contravention. Fines for non-compliance can be significant — up to $500,000 per offence for corporations under the current Alberta OHS Act.
If you disagree with an OHS order
If you believe an OHS order is wrong, challenging it is a legal process with strict, limited deadlines — in Alberta it's handled through a lawyer who specializes in OHS law, not a safety consultant. Get legal advice right away if you're considering it.
Either way, challenging an order does not pause it: the work must still stop or the correction must still be made unless you're formally granted a stay, and the underlying hazard still needs to be fixed. In practice, most employers focus on correcting the hazard and documenting compliance.
Frequently asked questions
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