All provinces and territories · Editable Word template

Municipal and public works safety manual template

A complete written health and safety program for municipalities, counties, municipal districts, regional districts, First Nations and Métis settlements, and the contractors who run municipal operations, wherever in Canada you are. It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements and written for the work: roads and streets, water and wastewater, parks, arenas and pools, solid waste, the fleet shop and facilities. It covers confined spaces in manholes and lift stations, hydrogen sulphide, excavations and locates, road crews in live traffic, chlorine and treatment chemicals, arena ammonia, snow and ice control, needles in parks, the public and working alone on call. Section 15 sets out the law of every province and territory, and federal workplaces, side by side, with each jurisdiction’s confined space, excavation, locate and work zone rules, and who regulates arena plants and certifies water operators. It arrives as an editable Word file you make your own.

A look inside

Sample pages from the manual, marked and cut short. Your copy has no watermark.

Cover with room for your logo and your municipality's name

Linked table of contents, laid out on the 14 national COR elements plus a section on the law in every province and territory

Section 3: twenty safe work practices written for public works, utilities, parks, arenas and waste crews, confined spaces shown

Section 15: each jurisdiction's confined space, excavation, locate and traffic control rules, and who regulates arena plants and certifies water operators

Appendix A: all 74 documentation questions of the national COR elements mapped

Print-ready forms: the confined space entry permit and standby log shown

What’s in the manual

1. Safety and health policy

A policy adopted by council and signed by the chief administrative officer, the written program, and responsibilities for council, management, foremen, operators, labourers, seasonal and young workers, and the municipality as owner and prime contractor.

2. Hazard assessment, analysis and control

Formal hazard assessments by department and type of work, the 5 × 5 risk matrix, a critical task inventory, and the job site hazard assessment done before municipal work.

3. Safe work practices

Twenty practices for public works: working in public, traffic control for road crews, excavation, locates, confined spaces, hydrogen sulphide, treatment chemicals, wastewater, mobile equipment, snow and ice, arena ammonia, pools, parks equipment, chainsaws, needles, solid waste, lockout, weather, aggression and working alone.

4. Safe job procedures

Step-by-step procedures for a water main break, entering a manhole or lift station, changing a chlorine cylinder, an ammonia alarm at the arena, night plowing and sanding, picking up a needle, patching potholes on a live road and clearing a packer jam.

5. Company safety rules

Life-saving rules for public works (no entry without a permit and a gas test, no one in an unprotected trench, never into the ammonia machine room on an alarm), and a progressive discipline process applied the same way every time.

6. Personal protective equipment

High-visibility apparel, gas detectors, respirators and fit testing, chemical PPE for treatment plants and pools, chainsaw PPE and the rest of the basic PPE.

7. Preventative maintenance program

Graders, loaders, plows and sanders, gas detectors and their bump tests, trench boxes and shoring, chlorine and chemical systems, arena refrigeration and the fleet.

8. Training and communication

Confined space, excavation, traffic control, chemical handling and equipment training, operator certificates, and orientation for every new, seasonal and young worker.

9. Inspections

Job sites, facilities and vehicles inspected, trenches checked, chemical rooms inspected, and plows and sanders checked before each shift.

10. Investigations and reporting

Gas exposures, cave-ins, struck-by incidents, chemical releases and needlesticks reported and investigated.

11. Emergency preparedness

Confined space rescue, a trench collapse, a chlorine or ammonia release, a worker struck on the road, the public, and first aid on every crew.

12. Statistics, records and document control

Entry permits, gas detector logs, trench inspections, chemical records, plow checks and certificates, kept for the longest period any jurisdiction requires.

13. Legislation

OHS law, the work zone manual, the locate service, boiler and refrigeration law, drinking water and wastewater operator certification, and the right to refuse.

14. Procurement and contractor management

Contractors on municipal projects, shared services with neighbouring municipalities, and buying equipment and chemicals.

15. Working across Canada

Whose law applies, then every province and territory and federal workplaces side by side: the act and regulation, the regulator, confined spaces, excavation and locates, road crews and the work zone manual, refrigeration plants, water and wastewater operators, and serious incidents to report and how fast.

Appendix A. COR cross-reference

Every one of the 74 documentation questions in the 14 national COR elements, what it looks for in plain words, the section that answers it, and whether the auditor will also want your records.

Appendix B. Forms

38 print-ready forms that match the manual, each with a form code: among them the municipal job site hazard assessment, confined space entry permit, excavation and trench inspection, gas detector bump test log, chlorine and chemical room inspection and snowplow pre-shift inspection.

Written for the work, not just the province

A small public works crew does a dozen jobs in a week: a water main in a trench, a lift station, a chlorine change, potholes in traffic, a night of plowing. This manual is written around them, practice by practice and procedure by procedure.

Council adopts the policy and the chief administrative officer signs it, so safety has a line in the budget and a name at the top.

One program for every province you work in

Your crews follow the occupational health and safety law of the province or territory where the municipality is, not where your office is. The manual sets your company’s rules once and gathers what changes at each border into section 15, so a supervisor starting work in a new province looks up what applies there.

It is laid out on the 14 national COR elements, so it suits a COR audit wherever you certify. Each certifying partner uses its own audit tool, so check it against yours; our provincial manuals follow each province’s audit exactly. No template can guarantee a certificate on its own, and we don’t claim to.

Who it is for

Municipalities, counties, municipal and regional districts, First Nations and Métis settlement public works, and contractors running municipal operations.

A template is a starting point, not legal or engineering advice: a qualified person must adapt it to your departments and facilities before you issue it.

Lifetime updates

When the law changes, we publish a new edition and email everyone who bought the template. Every update is free, for as long as we publish it.

Version 1.0 October 29, 2026
- First edition, written for municipalities and public works and laid out on the 14 national elements of the harmonized COR audit.
- Section 15 sets out the law and the confined space, excavation, locate, work zone, refrigeration plant and water operator rules of every province and territory and federal workplaces, checked against the legislation in force on 28 October 2026.