The occupational health and safety questionnaire
The OHS questionnaire contains 14 questions that assess the bidders’ general OHS practices, divided into five themes:
- OHS statistics
- Risks, inspections and audits
- Training and awareness
- Subcontracting
- Management procedures and practices
Consult the content of the OHS assessment questionnaire [PDF 138 kB]
Most of the questions require supporting documents that will be validated by the external partner. Consult the toolkit to know which documents are required and the validation criteria for each.
Target markets
The OHS questionnaire constitutes an eligibility criterion for most of the service markets where a high or moderate risk has been identified (involving work or physical installation by the supplier on a Hydro‑Québec site).
The target markets are provided below. Please note that these lists are not exhaustive. The OHS questionnaire can be included in other specific tender calls according to the activities involved in the contract (e.g., certain contracts for goods with installation).
- Engineering – lines and hydroelectric generating stations
- Equipment start-up and commissioning
- Roads, camps and engineering
- Monitoring of work
- Pollutants, waste, and nuisances
- Natural environment
- Environmental impact studies
- Investigation and quality control for materials
- Geomatics and surveys
- Vegetation control
- Pruning
- Deforestation
- Connections
- Pole installation
- Signage
- Housekeeping, cleaning and janitorial services
- Management of waste and hazardous materials
- Landscaping and snow removal
- Security management
- Building maintenance
- Pest and waste management service
- Airplane and helicopter chartering
- Transportation of merchandise and personnel
- Maintenance and operation of the aircraft fleet
- Crane rental
- Construction and work
- Transportation electrification and mobility
- Off-grid systems
- Professional services - Telecommunications
- Maintenance engineering
- Securing / Engineering
- Building engineering
- Substation engineering
- Transmission line engineering
- Refurbishment engineering for HQP
- Power generation engineering - non-hydropower energy sources
- Human environment
- Factory quality control
- Architecture
- Pole inspection
- Concierge services, food and lodging
- Line maintenance-auxiliary services
- Drone services
- Laundry services
- Real estate appraisal and property management
Valuation or eligibility criterion?
Valuation criterion
When the validated OHS assessment report constitutes a valuation criterion, which is rare, it is optional. We nevertheless recommend providing the report, because based on the score they receive, suppliers will be able to improve their bid.
Bidders who do not submit the OHS assessment report will obtain a score of 0 for this criterion. This, however, does not prevent Hydro‑Québec from continuing to analyze their bid.
Eligibility criterion without a passing score
When the OHS questionnaire constitutes an eligibility criterion without a passing score, bidders must attach their OHS assessment report, validated by our external partner, to their bid, without which their proposal will be considered non-compliant and will be rejected.
Although there is no minimum requirement, the score is taken into account when analyzing the bids.
Eligibility criterion with a passing score
This criterion means not only that submitting the validated OHS assessment report is mandatory, but also that the bidder must obtain a score of at least 70% for Hydro‑Québec to analyze their bid.
Since 2024, a few qualified service markets (air transportation and certain construction markets) include the OHS questionnaire as an eligibility criterion with a passing score.
However, as of July 2025, this criterion will gradually be applied to other service markets and, beginning January 2026, it will apply to most markets with a moderate to high OHS risk.
Summary of the deployment sequence of the OHS questionnaire
