Submit a Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR, LAB1070) through the Data Gateway in Canada: check whether Canada Labour Code Part II covers your workplace, make the 24-hour telephone report, investigate without delay, complete the form, and upload it within 14 days.
Applies in: CA
This guide covers one filing only: the written Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR), form LAB1070, sent to the federal Labour Program through the Data Gateway. It is a federal filing. Occupational health and safety in areas of federal jurisdiction is governed by Part II of the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Occupational Health and Safety (COHS) Regulations, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. The purpose of Part II is to prevent accidents and injury to health arising out of, linked with, or occurring in the course of employment, on the same page.
The Data Gateway is the upload route for the completed HOIR. The Government of Canada sign-in list at Sign in to a Government of Canada online account lists Data Gateway as a separate account, with the service described as submitting a Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR), under Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC). No official help page for the Data Gateway itself was found among the pages: no page stated its sign-in method, its upload file format or size limit, or whether it issues a confirmation. This guide therefore gives the full verified procedure around the upload — the investigation, the form, the deadlines, and the fallback route — and states plainly, at each portal step, what to check on screen instead of inventing a click path. Do not confuse the Data Gateway with LEAF, the Labour Electronic Access Form, which is the portal for the annual report; section 6 explains the difference.
Part II applies to federally regulated workplaces, not to most workplaces in Canada. Workplace health and safety – Know the fact states that Part II applies to interprovincial and international transportation, banks, telecommunications, broadcasting, shipping and related services, the grain industry, most Crown corporations, the federal public administration, and more. The full list at List of federally regulated industries and workplaces covers the federally regulated private sectors under Parts I, II, III and IV of the Code: air transportation including airlines, airports, aerodromes and aircraft operations; banks including authorized foreign banks; grain elevators, feed and seed mills, feed warehouses and grain-seed cleaning plants; First Nations band councils and Indigenous self-governments for certain activities; most federal Crown corporations, for example Canada Post Corporation; port services, marine shipping, ferries, tunnels, canals, bridges and pipelines (oil and gas) that cross international or provincial borders; postal and courier services; radio and television broadcasting; railways that cross provincial or international borders and some short-line railways; road transportation services including trucks and buses that cross provincial or international borders; telecommunications such as telephone, Internet, telegraph and cable systems; uranium mining and processing and atomic energy; and any business vital, essential or integral to the operation of one of the above activities. The federal public service and Parliament fall under Parts II and IV only, on the same list.
If your workplace is not on that list, this filing is probably not yours. Most employers in Canada report workplace injuries under provincial or territorial occupational health and safety law and to their provincial workers' compensation board instead, and those reports do not satisfy the federal duty, as the FAQ above explains. If you are unsure about jurisdiction, check the list linked above and call the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 before you start. Jurisdiction turns on the work and the employer, not on where the head office sits, so do not decide it from the mailing address alone.
Two limits apply from the start. First, the HOIR is the investigation report for a specific occurrence, not the annual summary: the annual Employer's Annual Hazardous Occurrence Report (EAHOR) is a separate filing due by March 1, covered in section 6. Second, air, rail and marine employers report hazardous occurrences onboard aircraft, trains and marine vessels to Transport Canada, in much the same way as they report occurrences on the ground to the Labour Program, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. If the occurrence happened onboard, confirm with Transport Canada and the Labour Program which route applies to that occurrence, and do not assume the ground route covers it.
After ensuring the safety and care of any injured or endangered individuals, secure the site where the incident occurred for investigation purposes and leave anything related to the incident undisturbed, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. Authorization may be required from a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer before disturbing an accident scene where an employee has been killed or seriously injured, on the same page. Do not clean up, repair, or move equipment at a serious scene until you have that direction.
The telephone report comes before the written report, and the clock runs from awareness, not from the end of the investigation. The employer must report to a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer by telephone as soon as possible, but within 24 hours after becoming aware of an occurrence that resulted in any of the following, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting:
The same page states that the Labour Program has an after-hours emergency telephone number that can be used to contact a Health and Safety Officer. No after-hours number could be verified on an official page, so this guide does not print one: find it on the Labour Program website or call 1-800-641-4049. Note the date, time, and name of the officer spoken to, and what was reported. That note is your record that the telephone duty was met; the Data Gateway upload does not replace it.
All accidents, occupational diseases and other hazardous occurrences affecting any employee must be investigated by a qualified person, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. The employer must designate a qualified person to investigate, record and report on the hazardous occurrence. Workplace Health and Safety Committees and Health and Safety Representatives are required to participate in investigations and to provide comments on the employer's investigation report, on the same page. The Policy Health and Safety Committee, should one exist, can determine the extent to which it considers its participation necessary.
The investigation should identify the causes of the occurrence so that the employer, in conjunction with the Workplace Health and Safety Committee or the Health and Safety Representative, can take the necessary measures to prevent a recurrence, on the same page. The Guide to the investigation and reporting of hazardous occurrences adds the working rules: Part XV of the COHS Regulations requires employees to report every accident or hazardous occurrence in the course of work that has or is likely to cause an injury, and requires every accident, occupational disease and other hazardous occurrence to be investigated without delay. As soon as possible after learning of the occurrence, the employer must act to ensure it does not happen again, appoint a qualified person to carry out the investigation, and notify the work place committee or representative of the occurrence and of the name of the investigator. Treat the investigation as fact-finding, not fault-finding: the guide warns that an inexperienced investigator may stop at employee inattention and miss unsafe conditions, unsafe acts, or inadequate management control behind them. Keep the investigator's notes for future reference; the guide states that the work place committee and management can then review the report and check that all causes and contributing factors were identified and appropriate corrective actions were carried out.
Two special cases need handling during the investigation. For a motor vehicle accident on a public road, the same recording and reporting requirements apply, and if police investigated the accident, the police report must accompany the report on the investigation conducted by the police and the Workplace Health and Safety Committee, with both the employer's report and the police report submitted to a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. For boiler, pressure vessel or elevating device damage, section 2's telephone report is not the only early duty: in addition to the 24-hour report, where a boiler or pressure vessel, or elevating device is damaged, the employer must record in a log within 72 hours a description of the occurrence including date, time, and location, with the causes and the corrective measures taken or the reason for not taking corrective measures, and must immediately send a copy of this record to the Workplace Health and Safety Committee or the Health and Safety Representative, on the same page.
The COHS Regulations use different labels for different occurrences, and the labels decide which deadline applies. Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting defines a minor injury as any employment injury or occupational disease for which medical treatment is provided, excluding a disabling injury, where medical treatment means care at a medical treatment facility — a hospital, medical clinic or physician's office where emergency medical treatment can be dispensed — and not first aid. A disabling injury is any employment injury or occupational disease that results in time loss or modified duties, temporary or permanent. Loss of consciousness means loss of consciousness from an electric shock or a toxic or oxygen deficient atmosphere. Rescue and revival or other emergency procedures means any incident requiring emergency procedures, such as a hazardous substance spill, bomb threat or violence prevention procedure. Use these definitions when you classify the occurrence; do not use a workers' compensation label in their place.
The written report should either be submitted using the form, Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR) - LAB1070, or it must contain all the information required by this form and be deemed acceptable to the Labour Program, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. Get the current form from the Service Canada forms catalogue: the Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (LAB1070). The instructions printed on that form state that Part II of the Canada Labour Code, paragraph 125(1)(c), requires every employer to investigate all hazardous occurrences, and that Part XV of the COHS Regulations defines which occurrences must be reported electronically, by written report under section 15.8, or by telephone under section 15.5.
Work through the form in its own order, using the instructions on its second page:
Check the completed form against the 14-day trigger list before you submit it. The employer must report in writing to a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer, within 14 days, occurrences that resulted in disabling injuries (temporary or permanent); electric shock, toxic atmosphere or oxygen deficient atmosphere that caused an employee to lose consciousness; rescue, revival or other similar emergency procedures; or a fire or an explosion, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. If the occurrence is on that list, the 14-day clock is already running. If it is not on that list, the investigation and recording duties in section 3 still apply, and the annual report in section 6 still counts it.
Start from the Government of Canada sign-in list. Sign in to a Government of Canada online account lists Data Gateway with the service described as submitting a Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR), under ESDC. Follow the Data Gateway entry from that list to its sign-in or registration page, and follow the prompts shown there. This guide does not describe the screens beyond that point, because those details could not be verified on an official Data Gateway help page: the sign-in method, any account registration steps, the accepted upload file format, any size limit, and whether the portal issues a confirmation number or receipt were all unverified at drafting. Check each of those points on the Data Gateway screens themselves before you rely on them, and do not carry over steps from LEAF, GCOS, or any other federal portal.
Upload the completed HOIR, or the accepted alternative containing all the information LAB1070 requires, through the Data Gateway, as Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting directs. If the portal will not accept the file, or you cannot get signed in, use the fallback route on the same page: send the completed report to the nearest district office. Addresses and telephone numbers for the district offices are available on the Labour Program website or by calling 1-800-641-4049. Do not let a portal problem eat the deadline: the 14-day written duty runs from the occurrence, and the fallback route exists for exactly that situation.
After you upload or send the report, keep your own proof of submission. No confirmation step could be verified on an official page, so this guide cannot tell you what receipt, if any, the Data Gateway returns. Save or print whatever confirmation the screens show, note the date, time and method of submission, and keep the employer's copy of the report. The form itself requires three copies: the employer sends one copy to the Head of Compliance and Enforcement within 14 days of the hazardous occurrence, sends one copy to the work place committee or health and safety representative, and keeps one copy, per the Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (LAB1070). Sending the committee or representative copy is part of the filing, not an optional courtesy: Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting states that the Workplace Health and Safety Committee or Health and Safety Representative must receive a copy of all investigation reports.
No fee is stated for this filing on any official page. If a Data Gateway screen asks for payment, stop and call the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 before paying anything, since no fee was verified. Likewise, if a screen asks for information the LAB1070 form does not contain, answer only what you can verify from the investigation, and leave nothing blank by guessing: an incomplete field with a note that the fact is still being checked is safer than an invented answer, and the committee comments section is the place to record what remains open.
The HOIR and the annual report are different filings with different deadlines, and the portals differ too. Each year, all employers must submit their completed annual reports for the preceding calendar year, even if there are no incidents to report — for example, in 2025 reporting data from 2024 — according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. The organization headquarters must send the Employer's Annual Hazardous Occurrence Report (EAHOR) - Regular, LAB1009, and organizations in aviation, rail and marine transport with onboard activities must also submit the EAHOR - Onboard, LAB1195. The chairperson or chairpersons of the employer's Workplace Health and Safety Committee must send the Work Place Committee Report (WPCR), LAB1058, to the regional Labour Program office. All three annual reports are due by March 1 each year; that March 1 date is the annual deadline, not the HOIR deadline.
LEAF belongs to the annual side. Labour Electronic Access Form describes LEAF as a secure portal that allows businesses to complete and submit forms online to the Labour Program instead of using paper forms, and states that federally regulated businesses sign in or register to LEAF to complete and submit the EAHOR online, with sign-in by GCKey or by bank, a User Reference Number for account recovery, and listed browser versions. None of those LEAF details was verified for the Data Gateway, and this guide does not transfer them. If you file annual reports as well, keep the two processes separate: HOIR through the Data Gateway within 14 days of the occurrence, annual reports on their own March 1 cycle through the route their own pages direct you to.
Keep the records when both filings are done. All records of occurrences, including the log of minor injuries, the employer investigation reports including police reports, and the employer annual reports to the Minister, must be kept by the employer for 10 years, according to Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting. The Guide to the investigation and reporting of hazardous occurrences states the same 10-year period for a copy of the written report, measured from its submission to the health and safety officer or the Minister. File the employer's copy, the submission note, the committee copy record, and the investigation notes together, so the file shows the occurrence, the investigation, the corrective measures and their dates, and the submission, in one place.
No. [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/hazardous-occurrence.html) states the point directly: reports submitted to provincial workers' compensation boards or other insurance agencies do not fulfil an employer's obligation to report to the Labour Program. The federal duty sits under Part II of the Canada Labour Code and the Canada Occupational Health and Safety Regulations, and the report goes to a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer. If you already filed a compensation claim, file the federal report as well, on the federal deadlines in this guide. A compensation form is also the wrong tool for the investigation itself: the [Guide to the investigation and reporting of hazardous occurrences](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/investigation-reporting.html) warns against using a compensation claim form as a hazardous occurrence report, because it points at injury causes rather than hazardous occurrence causes.
Yes, but only if it carries everything the form requires and the Labour Program accepts it. [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/hazardous-occurrence.html) states that the report should either be submitted using the form, Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR) - LAB1070, or it must contain all the information required by this form and be deemed acceptable to the Labour Program. Accepted alternatives and completed HOIR reports are to be uploaded through the Data Gateway or sent to the nearest district office. The safest course is to use LAB1070 itself, since its fields set the standard an alternative is judged against. If you use another format, check it field by field against LAB1070 before you upload it, and keep the employer's copy.
That could not be verified on any official page, so do not assume it. The Government of Canada sign-in list at [Sign in to a Government of Canada online account](https://www.canada.ca/en/government/sign-in-online-account.html) lists Data Gateway separately, with the service described as submitting a Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (HOIR), under Employment and Social Development Canada. It lists the Labour Electronic Access Form (LEAF) as a separate entry, for Employer's Annual Hazardous Occurrence Reports. The GCKey and Sign-in Partner pages describe LEAF registration and sign-in, not the Data Gateway. Start from the Data Gateway entry on the sign-in list and follow the sign-in or registration prompts shown there, and do not treat a LEAF account, a GCKey, or a bank sign-in as proven to open the Data Gateway until the Data Gateway screens confirm it. If the screens ask for a credential you do not have, call the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 before the 14-day deadline passes, and use the district office route in section 5 if needed.
Investigate, yes; file the 14-day written report only where the listed triggers apply. [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/hazardous-occurrence.html) states that all accidents, occupational diseases and other hazardous occurrences affecting any employee must be investigated by a qualified person, and that all hazardous occurrences must be reported to the Labour Program, with the requirements varying by type of occurrence. The 24-hour telephone report and the 14-day written report each have their own trigger lists, set out in sections 2 and 4 of this guide. A minor injury, defined on the same page as an employment injury or occupational disease for which medical treatment is provided at a medical treatment facility and excluding a disabling injury, does not by itself appear on the 14-day written-report list. Keep a record of it: the same page requires all records of occurrences, including the log of minor injuries, to be kept for 10 years. If you are unsure whether an occurrence meets a trigger, call the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 and ask, rather than guessing.
No late-reporting cure could be verified on an official page, so this guide states none. The telephone duty and the written duty are separate: [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/hazardous-occurrence.html) requires the telephone report as soon as possible, but within 24 hours after becoming aware, for the occurrences listed in section 2, and separately requires the written report within 14 days for the occurrences listed in section 4. A late telephone report does not remove the written duty, and filing the written report does not undo a missed telephone report. Make the telephone report as soon as you realize it was missed, keep the written report on its 14-day deadline, and contact a Labour Program Health and Safety Officer through the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 for direction on the specific case. Do not wait for the written report to make first contact.
Three copies, and 10 years. The instructions on the [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Report (LAB1070)](https://catalogue.servicecanada.gc.ca/apps/EForms/pdf/en/ESDC-LAB1070.pdf) state that the employer sends one copy of the report to the Head of Compliance and Enforcement within 14 days of the hazardous occurrence, sends one copy to the work place committee or health and safety representative, and keeps one copy. [Hazardous Occurrence Investigation Recording and Reporting](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/hazardous-occurrence.html) adds that the Workplace Health and Safety Committee or Health and Safety Representative must receive a copy of all investigation reports, and that all records of occurrences, including the log of minor injuries, the employer investigation reports including police reports, and the employer annual reports to the Minister, must be kept by the employer for 10 years. The [Guide to the investigation and reporting of hazardous occurrences](https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/health-safety/reports/investigation-reporting.html) puts the same retention period at 10 years after the report has been submitted to the health and safety officer or the Minister. Keep the employer's copy with your note of when and how the Data Gateway upload or district office sending was made.
No fee, file format, file size limit, sign-in method, account registration step, or confirmation step for the Data Gateway is stated in this guide, because none could be verified on an official page. Figures not stated in this guide: any after-hours emergency telephone number, which the reporting page says exists but does not print; any Data Gateway upload deadline other than the 14-day written-report deadline, which is the only deadline verified for the HOIR; any penalty for late reporting, none of which could be verified on an official page; and any statement that a GCKey, a Sign-in Partner, or a LEAF account opens the Data Gateway, which the LEAF pages do not establish for the Data Gateway. Recheck the Data Gateway screens from the sign-in list entry above on the day you file, and call the Labour Program at 1-800-641-4049 if a screen asks for something this guide does not describe.