Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations

8.5 (1) Subject to subsections (2) and (3), no employee shall work on electrical equipment unless the equipment is isolated.

(2) If it is not reasonably practicable to isolate the electrical equipment and an employee must work on live equipment, the employer shall instruct the employee in procedures that are safe for live conductors.

(3) Where electrical equipment is not live but is capable of becoming live, no employee shall work on the equipment unless

• (a) procedures that are safe for work on live equipment are used; or

• (b) a safety ground is connected to the equipment.

(4) Subject to subsections (5) and (6), where an employee is working on or near electrical equipment that is live or may become live, the electrical equipment shall be guarded.

(5) Subject to subsection (6), where it is not practicable for the electrical equipment referred to in subsection (4) to be guarded, the employer shall take measures to protect the employee from injury by insulating the equipment from the employee or the employee from ground.

(6) Where live electrical equipment is not guarded or insulated in accordance with subsection (4) or (5) or where the employee referred to in subsection (5) is not insulated from ground, the employee shall not work so near to any live part of the electrical equipment that is within a voltage range listed in column I of an item of the schedule to this Part that the distance between the body of the employee or any thing with which the employee is in contact and the live part of the equipment is less than

• (a) the distance set out in column II of that item, where the employee is not a qualified person; or

• (b) the distance set out in column III of that item, where the employee is a qualified person.

(7) No employee shall work near a live part of any electrical equipment referred to in subsection (6) where there is a hazard that an unintentional movement by the employee would bring any part of the body of the employee or any thing with which the employee is in contact closer to that live part than the distance referred to in that subsection.