Report an Incident, Hazard or Near-miss

All incident reports must be entered into Safety Spectrum within 24 hours of the event. If any details about the incident change, the report must be updated to reflect the new information. The Safety Office must also be informed directly if the employee receives any new or additional medical treatment.

Before you begin: choose the reporting option based on who was involved in the incident.

What is an incident or near‑miss?

An incident is an unwanted and unplanned event that may or does result in injury, illness, equipment or property damage.

Examples include:

  • Personal injury (contusion, cut, burn, strain)
  • Occupational illness (rash, hearing loss)
  • Fire/explosion
  • Hazardous materials spill
  • Motor vehicle accident (with or without injury)

A near-miss is a work-related condition, incident or unplanned event that did not result in injury, illness, equipment or property damage but had the potential to do so.

It is the supervisor's responsibility to ensure that prompt first aid and health care treatment is obtained, if necessary, and that University reports are completed.

The Incident Management Program contains details on the responsibilities and procedures for workers and supervisors.

What is a health and safety hazard?

A hazard is any source of potential damage, harm or adverse health effects on something or someone.

General hazards:

All members of the University community have the right and obligation to bring, without prejudice, health and safety concerns to their supervisor.

Submit Hazard Reports in Safety Spectrum to the supervisor for response and corrective action. After informing the supervisor of a hazard or concern, if it remains unresolved after a reasonable amount of time, a member of the University community may take the concern to the Director of Safety (ext. 35814) or a Joint Health and Safety Committee member.

Buildings or grounds:

Report unsafe building and grounds conditions to the Plant Operations department at ext. 33793 (24 hr service). The report should include the exact location of the area or some landmarks to assist in locating the hazard.

See the Hazard Reporting Standard for more information.

Already submitted a report?

Use your dashboard to review submitted reports, or to manage assigned follow‑up actions.