The Canadian electrical safety system is an
envy of many countries that use their installation codes for
regulatory purposes.
This system is an excellent example of
uniformity and consistency on application of the Canadian
Electrical Code throughout jurisdictional areas of the
country. The reason for such uniformity is based on the fact
that all electrical inspection authorities adopting the CE
Code for enforcement purposes actively partake in the
development of this very document.
Organization and rules of procedure of the
CE Code, Part I, are designed in such a way that not a single
provincial/territorial electrical inspections body is omitted
from participation on the CEC Technical Committee.
The matrix of the technical committee
(Clause C2.3.1 of Appendix C of the CE Code) includes all
thirteen provincial and territorial chief electrical
inspectors as the committee members representing
"Regulatory Authority". This approach is
instrumental in ensuring that the CEC is adopted for use in
all provincial and territorial jurisdictions as an applicable
provincial/territorial electrical code. While some
jurisdictions adopt the CE Code without any administrative or
technical amendments, others make a few administrative/legal
changes to Section 2 of the CE Code, to reflect specifics of
their particular administrative process. There are also a few
provinces that choose to make some changes to the technical
content of the CE Code, in order to recognize unique
environmental, health or safety provisions.
For example, Electrical Safety Authority in
Ontario, the sole electrical safety regulatory body in the
province, has modified the CE Code for adoption and
enforcement as the Ontario Electrical Safety Code, and this
modification has been achieved through a
comprehensive consensus based advisory process.
In addition to thirteen
provincial/territorial chief electrical inspectors/code
administrators, three municipal electrical inspections bodies
are also included in the matrix of the technical committee on
the CE Code, Part I. Traditionally these are three
municipalities that are located in different areas of the
country (from Atlantic, Pacific and prairie regions) and are
governed by their unique municipal charter or by law have
retained such membership.
For quite some time, the cities of Halifax,
Winnipeg, and Vancouver had been representing municipal
electrical inspectors on the CE Code committee.
In the late 80s, when inspection
responsibilities in Halifax had been assigned to Nova Scotia
Power, the created vacancy allowed the chief electrical
inspector for the city of Calgary to join this dedicated group
of experts.
Electrical inspectors participate in the
Code committee not only as formal members in accordance with
the Committee matrix. Various electrical inspectors are
actively involved as chairs and members of technical sections
subcommittees, selflessly committing their time and knowledge
to the consensus process of the Code development.
It is interesting to note that the
electrical inspectors category on the Code committee is only
one of three categories that are recognized by the Appendix C
matrix requirements.
Two other categories are:
Owner/Operator/Producer and General Interest. While the
owner/operator/producer group represents viewpoints of
electrical installation users, electrical designers,
contractors, manufacturers of electrical equipment, the
general interest category reflects views of power and
communication utilities, educators, labor, fire chiefs, and so
forth. All areas of representation are clearly identified in
Clause C2.3.1 of the CE Code Appendix C.
It is also interesting to note that in
accordance with the CSA guidelines not a single category on
the committee may dominate other categories of
representatives. Thus, matrix allows a maximum of sixteen
electrical inspectors (which is the present number on the
committee) for a total of 41 committee members.
Appendix C of the CE Code also takes into
account a fact that chief electrical inspectors on the
committee may have regulatory/legal concerns related to some
of the requirements proposed during a Code development
process. As such, a specific tool has been developed to
recognize these potential concerns—by establishing very
clear provisions for a Regulatory Authority committee (RAC).
RAC acts as the section subcommittee for legal amendments. RAC
consists of all chief electrical inspectors who are members of
the Code committee. Scope, mandate and operation of RAC are
described in Section C3 of Appendix C. When a RAC member
submits a negative vote during the committee discussion
process, this member must identify whether this negative vote
is made on technical grounds only, or it manifests legal
concerns related to a jurisdictional enforcement of the
proposed requirement. This RAC member must provide a
comprehensive and transparent substantiation of the negative
that relates to the regulatory concerns and must (through the
RAC deliberation process) derive at the acceptable alternative
solution that could be adopted by the entire Code committee.
Such objective process certainly helps in
avoiding any surprises when the CE Code is being adopted for
regulatory use in each jurisdictional area.
This process allows the electrical safety
regulators to continually "keep their finger on the
pulse" of the CE Code practicability, as in their role as
the technical enforcers of the adopted CE Code, they notice
any "imperfections" of this document. And
when "imperfections" are noted, electrical
inspectors try to make Code improvements by submitting
proposals for technical amendments or by encouraging their
customers (installers, designers, consumers) to participate in
this continuing process.
No doubt—this is a great cycle, and a
dual role of the electrical inspectors only brings this cycle
to a desired perfection.
Ark Tsisserev, P.Eng., is the chief
electrical inspector for the city of Vancouver, Canada.
He is a registered professional engineer, with a master’s
degree in electrical engineering. He is currently the
chairman of the technical committee on the Canadian
Electrical Code and represents the CE Code Committee on
NEC CMP-1 as the CMP-1 non-voting member. Ark is
presently the third vice president of the Canadian
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