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Inside a round tunnel lined with precast concrete segments, with a rail track and workers walking toward the boring machine

Province · QC

Civil construction in Quebec

The rules, notice periods, payment law and portals that apply to civil work in Quebec, each linked to the regulation or agency that sets it.

Checked 2026-09-246 sources

STA 0+120Excavation and trench rules

Quebec’s occupational health and safety rules set when an excavation must be sloped, shored or boxed, and when an engineer must design the protection.

  • Banks of an excavation or trench must be shored solidly in accordance with the plans and specifications of an engineer (s. 3.15.3(1)); exceptions: solid rock or no worker descends; no collapse risk and banks slope less than 45 degrees from a point less than 1.2 m from the bottom; or an engineer attests shoring is unnecessary1
  • Shoring must extend 300 mm above the excavation (s. 3.15.3(2)); no materials within 1.2 m and no vehicles/machines within 3 m of the rim unless reinforced shoring (s. 3.15.3(5)); ladders every 15 linear metres (s. 3.15.4); under-18 workers prohibited (s. 3.15.10)1
  • Before digging, the employer shall verify whether there is underground piping within the perimeter of the works and situate its exact location on the ground (s. 3.15.1)1

Not safety advice

Summaries of the regulation for planning. Read the current text and follow your employer’s procedures. Compare every province in trench safety and shoring.

STA 0+240Locates before you dig

  • Info-Excavation provides free locate requests for Quebec and the Atlantic provinces; expect a 3 business day delay before starting work (emergency as short as an hour); 1-800-663-92282
  • Info-Excavation FAQ states placing a locate request is not mandatory (strongly recommended); provincial OHS rules nonetheless require employers to locate services before excavating (e.g., Quebec s. 3.15.1)2

The paint colours are the same across Canada: white for the proposed excavation, pink for survey, then red, yellow, orange, blue, green and purple for the buried services. See call before you dig.

STA 0+360Holdbacks and prompt payment

We have not yet verified Quebec’s holdback and prompt-payment provisions from the legislation. Until we do, check the province’s lien legislation directly and see how holdbacks work.

STA 0+480The market

Capital spending on engineering construction in Quebec was $22.3 billion in 20243, out of $155.8 billion nationally3. The province’s allocation under the Canada Community-Building Fund (now the Community stream of the Build Communities Strong Fund) was $540,840,000 in 2023–244.

STA 0+600Tenders, associations and specifications

Sources

  1. Safety Code for the construction industry, CQLR c S-2.1, r. 4, subdivision 3.15 (Excavation and trenching work)Publications Quebec (LegisQuebec) · retrieved 2026-09-24
  2. FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions | Info-exInfo-Excavation · retrieved 2026-09-24
  3. Table 34-10-0063-01 Capital expenditures, non-residential tangible assets, by type of asset and geographyStatistics Canada · 2024
  4. Canada Community-Building Fund by Province and TerritoryHousing, Infrastructure and Communities Canada · fiscal 2023-24
  5. Other tendering websitesPublic Services and Procurement Canada · page modified 2025-10-29
  6. Association des constructeurs de routes et grands travaux du Quebec (ACRGTQ) websiteAssociation des constructeurs de routes et grands travaux du Quebec (ACRGTQ) · URL checked 2026-09-24