Although this quote from Terry Becker was originally posted in the News section I felt that it more properly belonged here.

There are only two key differences between CSA Z462-2012 and NFPA 70E-2012. The first difference is that formatting rules for the two organizations are different and thus the section numbering isdifferent. The wording in the body of the standards however is word-for-word identical. The second difference is that the mixture of annexes is different. I forgot the exact list but suffice to say that CSA Z462-2012 has a few more. Where the annexes are the same between the two standards, again the wording is word-for-word identical.

However the above quote seems to suggest that the two standards are no longer going to be coordinated quite so closely. My current employer is dual headquartered both in the States and Canada and thus these differences are very important to me. What are going to be the differences in 2015?

My company also operates in the US and Canada and we have harmonized our safety program with both standards. One additional difference between the current 70E and Z462 is that Z462 requires the date of the arc flash analysis be printed on the arc flash label, while 70E does not require the date on the label.

Taking a step back from just the 2015 revisions, there is a general effort to revise Z462 and 70E in accordance with best practices from the Occupational Health & Safety (OH&S) field. Electrical safety has historically been shepherded by the electricians and electrical engineers more than the OH&S community. Most of us (electrical folks) have some level of formal electrical training but very little training on OH&S management systems and risk assessments. Some of the developments in electrical safety over the last ten years could have been improved if leading OH&S perspectives were integrated a bit more. There is an increased focus now from folks like Terry Becker, Mike Doherty, Daniel Roberts, and Lanny Floyd on bringing OH&S best practices into the electrical safety community and revising Z462 and 70E accordingly. A good starting point is clarifying the vocabulary (taken from Z1002):

Hazard - a potential source of harm to a worker
Source - item or activity having a potential for consequence
Harm - physical injury or damage to health
Risk - combination of the likelihood of the occurrence of harm and the severity of that harm
Likelihood - chance of something happening
Consequence - outcome of a hazardous event

A major change that is teed up for the 2015 editions of 70E and Z462 that has gotten a lot of attention is the topic of risk assessments. Us electrical folks need to understand the concept that

Risk = (severity of a hazard) coupled with (likelihood of a particular incident)

and we need to have formalized ways of performing risk assessments without getting bogged down with the fact that all human activities have a low, but non-zero risk for numerous hazards.

Daniel Roberts has presented a few papers on this topic at the IEEE Electrical Safety Workshop. The papers are available through IEEE Xplore for free to anyone who is an IEEE Industry Applications Society (IAS) member.

Back on topic - -
I have not gotten any indication that Z462 and 70E will technically diverge in 2015 or beyond. I think the changes highlighted above that Terry pointed out are part of the OH&S harmonization effort.

I understand that quote as the new revisions of both (2015) will make the distinct difference, compared with the 2012 edition. I don't expect more technical divergence than now between the 2 standards.

CSA Z462 is still based on NFPA 70E due to the MOU between the two. I think they have a few more years on this.

http://publicreview.csa.ca/Home/View/428209

The 2015 is now out for public review so you can read it above. I found searching for "462" was more effective than "Z462".

There should still only be differences in the Annexes. Most of the Annex differences in Z462 have been brought into NFPA 70E so even those are likely to be the same in 2015.