Glossary
The vocabulary of the trade, defined once per country. The same three letters rarely mean the same thing on both sides of a border, and a definition that ignores that is worse than none.
16 terms defined
Risk assessment
- Competent person Competent worker · Qualified person
- A person who is qualified because of knowledge, training and experience to do the work, is familiar with the legislation applying to it, and has knowledge of any actual or potential hazard at that workplace. It is a test applied to a task, not a rank.
- Confined space Restricted space · Confined space entry
- A fully or partially enclosed space that is not designed for continuous human occupancy, has restricted means of entry or exit, and may become hazardous because of its atmosphere, its contents or its design.
- Lockout / tagout LOTO · Hazardous energy control · Lock-out tag-out
- The controlled isolation of every energy source feeding a machine before service or maintenance, with each worker applying a personal lock, and a tag identifying who applied it and why. It is a written procedure verified by a zero-energy test, not simply a lock on a switch.
- Safety data sheet SDS · WHMIS safety data sheet · MSDS
- The sixteen-section document a supplier must provide with a hazardous product sold or imported into Canada, describing its hazards, its safe handling and the emergency measures, under WHMIS and the Hazardous Products Regulations.
PPE & training
- Working at heights WAH training · Fall protection training
- In Ontario, a mandatory training program a construction worker must complete, from a Chief Prevention Officer–approved provider, before using a fall-protection system. The certificate is valid for three years and is required on top of, not instead of, employer-specific training.
- Young worker New and young worker · Young and new worker orientation
- A worker below an age set by the jurisdiction — commonly under 25 for statistical and orientation purposes, with minimum working ages set separately by task and sector — for whom employers owe specific orientation, supervision and, in some work, an outright prohibition.
Audits & records
- Lost-time claim LTC · Lost-time injury · LTI
- A workers' compensation claim accepted by a provincial board where the worker lost time from work beyond the day of injury, or received a permanent disability award. It is a claims-accepted count, not a count of accidents.
- Near miss Close call · Near hit · Good catch
- An unplanned event that could have caused injury, illness or damage but did not. In most Canadian jurisdictions there is no statutory duty to report one to the regulator, which makes it a purely internal source of information.
- Notice of project NOP · Notice of project form
- A form filed with the regulator before certain construction or high-hazard work begins, identifying the project, the constructor or prime contractor, the employers and the expected duration. A copy is posted at the workplace.
Environment & ESG
- Hazardous waste manifest Manifest · Movement document · Waste shipment document
- The tracking document that accompanies a shipment of hazardous waste from the generator to the receiving facility, signed at each transfer, with copies retained by every party. In Canada it is a provincial instrument for movements inside a province and a federal one for movements across a border.
Leading safety
- Due diligence Reasonable care · Every precaution reasonable in the circumstances
- The level of care an employer is expected to have taken to prevent a harm, and the defence available when a charge is laid: not that nothing went wrong, but that every reasonable precaution in the circumstances was taken beforehand.
- Internal responsibility system IRS
- The principle that everyone in a workplace — employer, supervisor and worker — holds a share of responsibility for health and safety proportionate to their authority, and that the regulator's role is to support and audit that system rather than to run it.
- Joint health and safety committee JHSC · Health and safety committee · Comité de santé et de sécurité
- A committee of worker and employer representatives, required in most workplaces above a headcount threshold, that inspects the workplace, reviews hazards and makes written recommendations the employer must answer in writing.
- Prime contractor Constructor · Principal contractor
- The party designated to coordinate health and safety on a workplace where two or more employers work at the same time. In the provinces that use the term, the designation is made by law or by written agreement, and it does not remove any employer's own duties.
- Supervisor Person in charge · Competent supervisor
- A person who has charge of a workplace or authority over a worker. The status follows the authority actually exercised, not the job title on the contract, and it carries personal statutory duties.
- Work refusal Right to refuse dangerous work · Refusal to work
- A worker's statutory right to refuse work they have reason to believe is dangerous to themselves or another worker, together with the investigation procedure the employer must follow before the work can be reassigned.
Coming next
- WHMIS
- Toolbox talk
- Working alone
- Musculoskeletal injury
- Return to work
- Experience rating
- Fall protection plan
- Traumatic mental stress