Amendments to the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation (OHSR), Part 5: Chemical Agents and Biological Agents – Emergency Planning came into effect on February 3, 2025. Changes include additional requirements to minimize the risk, likelihood, and harm caused by an emergency involving hazardous substances.  

Hazardous substances include biological, chemical or physical hazards that may reasonably be anticipated to cause harm to the health or safety of anyone in the workplace. This includes products covered by WHMIS as well as explosives, pesticides, radioactive materials, hazardous waste, consumer products, etc. The definition for hazardous substance can be found in the Workers Compensation Act, Part 2, Division 1, Section 13. 

Highlighted changes include: 

• A detailed inventory of all hazardous substances, including the nature of the substance, maximum quality present, capacity of the containers, safe handing, storage, and information on how to access health and safety effects. 
• Risk assessments, including emergencies that may arise outside of the workplace (e.g.: neighboring facilities.)
• Emergency response plans, including procedures for evacuations and shelter-in-place for all persons at a workplace. 
• Emergency notification procedures, including the notification to all people at a workplace, emergency personnel, as well as adjacent workplaces and residences. 
• Safe work procedures for controlling the release, cleaning up spills, or testing prior to re-entry, even if the task is performed by a third party. 
• Worker training and participation in all parts of the emergency planning process. 
• Drills, at least annually with assigned and documented roles and responsibilities, and the evaluation of control measure effectiveness.  
• Annual emergency plan review. 
• Records kept for five years. 

More information can be found on the WorkSafeBC Backgrounder and WorkSafe BC Guidelines. 

If you have questions about the requirements or would like help refining your emergency planning, email us at info@safecarebc.ca.