Construction safety plan in Quebec: the CNESST prevention program, and what must be in French.
On a Quebec site, the construction safety plan the law requires is the prevention program. The principal contractor (maître d'oeuvre) has it prepared before work begins once 10 or more construction workers will be on site at the same time. The Act names no language for it; other Quebec texts require French for safety data sheets and training documents.
What is a construction safety plan in Quebec?
Outside Quebec, a construction safety plan, also called a site-specific or project-specific safety plan, is the document a contractor writes for one site: its hazards, the controls, the emergency procedures. Quebec’s Act respecting occupational health and safety calls that document the prevention program and puts it on the principal contractor, the maître d’oeuvre, who carries the employer’s obligations on the site (section 196).
A contractor’s company-wide safety program, safety manual and safety management system cover all of its sites. On the site itself, where an employer’s own prevention program or action plan conflicts with the principal contractor’s program, the principal contractor’s program prevails (section 203).
When is a CNESST prevention program required?
When the number of construction workers expected on site at the same time, at any stage of the work, reaches a threshold set by the Act. The threshold is counted at the busiest stage of the site:
Every site
Send the CNESST a notice of opening at least 10 days before activities begin, and a notice of closing
Act s. 197; Code 2.4.1
10 workers
Have a prevention program prepared before work begins, in collaboration with the employers, and give a copy to the health and safety representative and the sector's joint association
Act s. 198
20 workers
Send the program to the CNESST before work begins, and form a job-site committee as soon as work begins
Act s. 200, 204
100 workers or over $12M
Designate one or more full-time health and safety coordinators
Act s. 215.1
Every employer working on the site commits in writing to have the program respected (section 202), and the CNESST can order it changed or a new one submitted (section 201). The $12 million threshold for coordinators is revalued every five years.
What must a site prevention program contain?
Section 199 points to the list in section 59. For a construction site, the prevention program must cover:
- 01The identification and analysis of the risks to workers’ health and safety, including chemical, biological, physical, ergonomic and psychosocial risks.
- 02The measures and priorities that eliminate those risks or, failing that, control them, following the hierarchy of prevention measures set by regulation, with a timeline.
- 03How the measures are monitored, evaluated, maintained and followed up.
- 04The personal protective means and equipment best suited to the workers.
- 05The health and safety training and information programs.
- 06A list of the hazardous materials used on the site and the contaminants that may be emitted.
- 07An adequate first aid service.
- 08The policy on preventing and dealing with psychological harassment.
A site-specific safety plan written for another province covers the risk analysis, the controls, the protective equipment and first aid. On a Quebec site, each measure is then checked against the Quebec regulations, and the documents a Quebec text requires in French are translated (below).
Which site safety documents must be in French?
The Act’s sections on the prevention program name no language for it. Other texts name French, document by document:
- Safety data sheets, labels and signs of hazardous productsIn French; a translation may accompany them but may not prevail over the French or be more accessibleAct s. 62.4
- The employer's written communications to its staffIn FrenchCharter s. 41
- Training documents produced for staff, documents on working conditionsAvailable in French, on terms at least as favourable as any other versionCharter s. 41
- Instructions and documents that come with a productIn French; a translation may accompany themCharter s. 51
- Boxes of explosivesStorage, handling, use and destruction instructions in FrenchCode s. 4.1.1
- Motorized scaffoldsIdentification plate in French, and a complete instruction manual written in FrenchCode s. 3.9.25
Charter of the French language (up to date to October 15, 2026) and Safety Code for the construction industry (up to date to July 1, 2026), read on LégisQuébec 2026-11-09. Not legal advice.
The texts require that a crew be able to read in French the safety data sheet of every hazardous product on the site, and the training their employer produces for them. Whether the handout of a toolbox talk or a site induction is a written communication or a training document under section 41 is a question for your counsel; this post is not legal advice.
On a federal project the specification asks for its own document. National Master Specification section 01 35 29.06, Health and Safety Requirements (Santé et sécurité in French), has the contractor prepare a site-specific health and safety plan, a plan de santé et de sécurité propre au site.
Which words change between an English safety plan and a Quebec program?
Most terms of a safety plan, such as those listed under the next heading, translate one for one. Three terms do not, because the National Master Specification and the Act name the same thing differently. The specification’s term base we work from gives the federal French; the Act gives Quebec’s:
Same document, two vocabularies
maître d'oeuvrethe principal contractor, who answers for site safety
maître de l'ouvragethe owner
The maître d’oeuvre is the principal contractor, who answers for safety on the site. The maître de l’ouvrage is the owner. A plan that swaps them makes the owner responsible for what the Act puts on the principal contractor.
How do we translate a construction safety plan?
We work from one term base per client, so the program, the safe work procedures, the training and the site signs use the same words. For a Quebec site, the Act’s terms replace the template’s; where the plan answers a federal specification section, the specification’s terms stay. Site plans in AutoCAD come back as DWG.
We have translated health and safety programs, site-specific safety plans and the health and safety sections of federal specifications, for general contractors, heavy civil contractors and federal owners. One national general contractor’s program came with a term base of over 2,500 terms.
More on the documents we handle for contractors is on our construction translation services page, and the language rules for staff are in our guide to Bill 96 and construction documents. To see where your own safety documents disagree with themselves, send one to the free terminology check.
Common questions
What is a construction safety plan called in French?
Who prepares the prevention program on a construction site?
Does the prevention program have to be sent to the CNESST?
Do safety data sheets have to be in French in Quebec?
Can you translate a safety plan from French to English?
Your engineers review the translation in the terms they approved.
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