Boilers, Pressure Vessels, and Refrigeration Contractor Licences
A licensed contractor is responsible for ensuring compliance with the Safety Standards Act, all relevant regulations, and all applicable safety orders and directives. All contractors working with boiler and pressure vessel equipment must be licensed by Technical Safety BC.
Licence classes
The conditions of your licence may allow you to perform maintenance, installations, construction, manufacturing, testing, alterations, or disposals. You need to have a licence for each type of boiler, pressure vessel, or refrigeration equipment that you intend to work with.
QUALITY CONTROL PROGRAMS REQUIRED
Some contractor licences require registered quality control programs. Find out which licence classes require registered quality control programs in directive D-BP 2019-01.
The contractor licence classes A, Au, Ap, B, PW, REF, SRV, MA are established as per the Power Engineers, Boilers, Pressure Vessels and Refrigeration Safety Regulation.
Authorized to install, alter, repair, or maintain boilers, pressure vessels; and to construct, repair, install, maintain or alter pressure piping or refrigeration piping limited to the scope in the required registered quality control program. The scope of this licence also covers "Au", "Ap", "B", and “PW” classes scope of work.
For more information, please refer to: Class A Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7025.
Authorized to install, alter, repair or maintain pressure vessels, and to construct install, repair, maintain or alter pressure piping or refrigeration piping limited to the scope in the required registered quality control program. The scope of this licence also covers “Ap” and “PW” class licence work.
For more information, please refer to: Class Au Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7026.
Authorized to construct, install, repair, maintain, or alter Pressure Piping, including refrigeration piping as limited by the scope in the required registered quality control program. The scope of this licence also covers “PW” class licence work.
For more information, please refer to: Class Ap Contractor’s Licence Guideline BRC-7027.
Authorized to install, maintain or repair limited capacity Boiler, Pressure Vessel, and Pressure Piping.
For more information, please refer to: Class B Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7031.
Note: A quality control program is currently not required when applying for this licence.
Authorized to manage a pressure welding program on regulated products or equipment, as limited by the scope in the required registered quality control program.
For more information, please refer to: Class PW Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7024.
Authorized to install, alter, maintain or repair refrigeration systems, equipment, and to construct, install, repair, maintain, or alter refrigeration piping. The scope of this licence also includes installation of pressure vessels in refrigeration systems.
For more information, please refer to: Class REF Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7030.
Note: A quality control program is currently not required when applying for this licence.
Authorized to service, repair, set and test safety valves and safety relief valves as limited by the scope in the required registered quality control program.
For more information, please refer to: Class SRV Contractor’s Licence Guideline BRC-7028.
Authorized for shop manufacturing of boilers, pressure vessels, or pressure fittings as per CSA-B51, and the shop manufacturing of pressure piping. Limited to the scope in the required registered quality control program.
For more information, please refer to: Class MA Contractor Licence Guideline BRC-7029.
Applying for a contractor licence
- Complete the boiler contractor licence application form.
- Obtain your BC Business Registration number documentation.
- Submit the completed form and your BC Business Registration number documents via our contact form.
- While your application is being processed, Technical Safety BC will contact you to pay the relevant boiler licence fee.
Renewing your licence
Licences need to be renewed each year. If you have received your renewal notice and would like to apply for an updated contractor licence, please call 1 866 566 7233 to pay by credit card or bring your completed renewal form and payment to any Technical Safety BC office. If you fail to renew within one year after your expiry date, you will need to reapply for a new boiler contractor licence and pay the new boiler contractor licence fee.
Amending or updating your licence/ quality control program
For contractor licence classes B and REF, to change licence information, such as change in contractor name and address change, please submit a BC Registry proof of legal name or address change along with a completed application via our contact form.
For contractor licence classes A, Au, Ap, PW, SRV, and MA, in addition to submitting BC Registry proof of legal name or address change, changing licence information will also require revisions to your quality control program.
For quality control program revisions to an existing licence (with or without name/address change), please submit your revised quality control program, along with a completed application form via our contact form.
Changes, such as the ones above, require a safety services fee.
Contractor licensing fees
| 2022 | |
|---|---|
| New boiler contractor licence | $456 |
| New boiler contractor licence with quality control program | $1027 |
| Boiler contractor licence renewal (if renewed later than 1 year after expiry, new boiler contractor fee is charged) | $190 |
| Audit or re-audit / Interview to obtain or maintain contractor licence (part of licensing process) | Safety services rate |
View the Boilers, Pressure Vessels, and Refrigeration fee schedule.
Looking up contractors who are licensed in BC
To check if a contractor is licensed with Technical Safety BC, go to our Find a Contractor page and enter their name or company name. If you do not see them listed, they may be operating under a different name or a numbered company.
Contact us if you have any further questions.