Our Enforcement Process
At Technical Safety BC we believe that if we provide you with the information you need, and supply you with simple tools to interact with us, that safety system participants like yourself will take responsibility and comply with the Safety Standards Act.
We believe in people and their commitment to safety. However, when duty holders neglect their safety responsibilities we will intervene through enforcement actions.
What is the enforcement process?
The main focus of the Compliance and Enforcement program is to support duty holder participation (i.e. licenses, qualifications), connection (permits), and better overall compliant behaviour within the province's safety system. This is attained through investigations into data, technical systems and individual performance, all which provide insight and influence our activities. And when we identify non-compliance we take fair and measured actions with a range of tools at our disposal under the Safety Standards Act.
1 - Identification
The enforcement process begins with the identification of non-compliance.
In recent years Technical Safety BC has become ever more sophisticated at identifying and locating work conducted outside of the safety system. We have the technology, the expertise, and relationships with local municipalities to identify contractors who are failing to fulfill their legal responsibilities. For these contractors it is not a question of if they will be caught, but when.
2 - Enforcement action(s)
Once non-compliance has been identified, Technical Safety BC may decide to take action. There are various tools at our discretion to promote the correction of the non-compliances and influence long term behaviour change of the duty holder. These included:
- Issuing compliance orders
- Imposing monetary penalties
- Issuing discipline orders
3 - Reviews and appeals
Enforcement actions issued by Technical Safety BC are guided by principles of fairness and are subject to review and appeal.
Review - You can request that an enforcement decision be reviewed by the provincial safety manager within 30 days of receipt of the decision. To request a review you must complete and send the Safety Manager Review Request Form 1077 to Technical Safety BC.
Appeal - To challenge a decision made by a provincial safety manager, an appeal must be filed within 30 days of receipt to the Safety Standards Appeal Board. This is an independent body authorized to hear appeals of certain Technical Safety BC decisions.
The above applies to all of our technologies with the exception of railways, which is governed under the Railway Safety Act.