Every jurisdiction in Canada requires employers to report incidents and injuries to government authorities. The specific details of what incidents must be reported and how vary, but one thing that’s the same everywhere is the lack of tolerance for delays, omissions and other failures to follow the reporting rules to the letter. A case from Yukon is a perfect illustration of what can happen to employers who don’t pay attention to the details when reporting incidents. Employer Fined for Reporting Incident to the Wrong Official A mishap during blasting operations launches large chunks of stone into the air at high speed. One chunk destroys a shed; another crashes through the roof of a trailer and lands in the occupant’s living room. Miraculously, nobody is hurt. The company notifies a government official, as required by OHS regulations. But it’s not the right official. The incident reporting regulation specifically requires notifying the Director of Occupational Health and Safety, says the court in finding the company guilty of an OHS violation [Yukon (Director, Occupational Health and Safety) v. Yukon, [2010]  Y.J. No. 42, May 11, 2010]. Create a Model Policy that Meets the Incident Reporting Rules of Your Province The best way to ensure you don’t make the kinds of mistake that got the employer into trouble in the Yukon case is to create a Policy setting out procedures to be followed in conducting incident investigations and reporting incidents to the government. Of course, these procedures must be in line with the specific requirements of your province’s law. To make your life easier, we’ve added to the OHS Insider TOOLBOX Model Incident Investigation and Reporting Policies for each of the 10 provinces, 3 territories and the federal jurisdiction. Some of the policies also include Incident Report forms that you can use to provide the appropriate notification to the government.   Caveat: The OHS requirements to which these Model Policies are tailored represent just the minimum requirements. You might want to consider adjusting the policy to do more than the law requires and in accordance with the specific needs of your workplace.