Most employers and workers in Ontario who are required to work regularly in and around confined spaces will be familiar with the need for confined space entry permits, which much be completed prior to any worker entering a confined space.
Tundra Rescue teams supporting a customer in a confined space.
However, as we have found through more than a decade of experienced of supporting confined space work in Ontario, our customers and others working on the same projects and assignments are sometime less familiar with some of the other supporting administrative work which is also mandatory in Ontario under Regulation 623/05 (O Reg 632/05) when work takes place in and around confined spaces.
This paperwork includes the preparation and sharing of a “co-ordination document” which should be produced and shared with all employers in advance of any work, in situations where workers of more than one employer are required to “perform work in a confined space or related work with respect to the same confined space”. (1)
This co-ordination document is intended to ensure that all employers and workers are aware of the hazards and potential hazards that might be introduced as a result of the work that other employers, contractors might be doing, whether that work is carried out concurrently, at the same time, or consecutively, one task after another.
O Reg 632/05 indicates that the “lead employer” [or constructor – in the case of a construction project] is responsible for preparation of the co-ordination document, therefore because we are rarely ever a lead employer on an external worksite Tundra Rescue is also rarely ever responsible for preparing this document ourselves and it would usually be responsibility for whoever is the primary client.
However, when there are more than one employers present there should be a document available, and our supervisors and workers should be able to review it, enabling us to incorporate anything relevant from it into our own planning, Jobsite Safety Analysis (JSA) and toolbox talks.
If any of our customers are unsure about whether, when and how they should be preparing a confined space co-ordination document we would be pleased to provide further advice about this topic.
Tundra Rescue’s consultancy services offers advice and assessment support to organisations in Ontario and beyond which are required to work in and around confined spaces.
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Tundra Rescue is a leading provider of industrial support services involving confined spaces and vertical access challenges in Ontario. If you have any projects that involve confined space safety or access issues, whether these involves just one entry or multiple, complex entries over a longer period of time, or technical work with access implications, please do get in touch to see how we can assist.
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(1) Confined Space Guidelines, Health and Safety Guidelines, Ministry of Labour, Ontario (2011 version)
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