pigtails?

Some people prefer pigtails, but they are not required.

Only required if this is a multiwire circuit, where you are sharing the neutral across 240v making two 120v circuits. You need to pigtail the neutral so it is not broken if you remove the receptacle.

Thanks. I thought this was the case but wanted confirmation.

In Canada, you are required to pigtail hot, neutral, and ground in any case where there is another receptacle 'downstream.' The ground wire must be attached to the box before being pigtailed.

The rationale behind pigtails is that if any one receptacle should fail, the remaining devices in that circuit will still function--not a bad feature...

Mr Fixit eh

According to Steve Nekias :

Strictly speaking last CEC code revision I checked, you always pigtail grounds, neutrals are pigtailed in multi-wire branches only, and hots do not need to be pigtailed.

Not having ground connected when you remove a device is quite dangerous

Not having neutral connected with you remove a device isn't particularly dangerous but it's _extremely_ dangerous with a multi-wire branch circuit.

Not having hot connected when you remove a device is not a safety hazard.

Is this a recent CEC change? Or are you going by Knight?

Last time I read Knight, Knight said the above, but in addition that _always_ pigtailing neutrals was "better", even if not required in a specific instance.

Knight.

Mr Fixit eh