Information Bulletin: Compliance and Enforcement Fees Criteria

The following information bulletin is being issued to clarify when and how Compliance & Enforcement Program fees will be applied.

Definitions

Compliance audit: An evaluation of a duty holder’s adherence to The Act and regulations, and how they systematically meet their obligations.

Duty holder: A person or company who is responsible for compliance because they either own regulated products, or perform regulated work.

Enforcement tool: An action or series of actions intended to change an individual’s behaviour to promote compliance with requirements of The Act, using powers specified within The Act.

Flat Fee: A single fixed fee for service, regardless of usage.

Investigation (permit): The systematic collection, evaluation, and analysis of facts and information related to a regulated product or work.

Non-compliance: A failure of regulated product, equipment or work to meet applicable regulatory requirements

Physical assessment: A type of assessment where the regulated product, equipment or work has been directly evaluated by Technical Safety BC.

Regulated work: Regulated work is the assembly, manufacture, construction, installation, operation, testing, alteration, maintenance, or repair of a regulated product or equipment.

Undervalued work: Relates to an instance where a duty holder purchases permit(s) that are not within the scope of the work being performed, resulting in a reduced permit value.

Unpermitted work: Regulated work that has been done without the required permissions in place.

Warning notice:  A document issued to a person or company by Technical Safety BC identifying non-compliant behaviour and further advising that future non-compliance of a similar nature may result in progressive enforcement action.

Investigation of undervalued workThe investigation of undervalued work fee has been implemented to recover the administrative costs associated with the discovery, investigation and correction of an undervalued permit. This fee will be applied in addition to the permit amendment value in the following way:

First instance: Of a duty holder identified with undervalued permit(s) after February 1, 2018:

a) The fee will be applied in groupings of five up to a maximum of five applications. For example:

   i.)  1-5 undervalued permits identified =  flat fee x 1

   ii.)  6-10 undervalued permits identified = flat fee x 2

   iii.) 11-15 undervalued permits identified = flat fee x 3

   iv.) 16-20 undervalued permits identified = flat fee x 4

   v.)  21 or greater undervalued permits identified = flat fee x 5

Subsequent instance(s): Of a duty holder identified with undervalued permit(s) after February 1, 2018:

a) The flat fee may be applied to each instance of undervalued work identified up to a maximum of 5 applications. For example:
   i.) 5 undervalued permits identified = flat fee x 5

Investigation of unpermitted work
Technical Safety BC undertakes administrative and investigative activities to identify and follow-up on unpermitted work which is distinct from the day-to-day assessment work performed by safety officers. The investigation of unpermitted work fee has been implemented to recover the administrative costs associated with the discovery, investigation and follow-up activity ensuring resolution of work performed without a permit. This fee will be applied in addition to the permit cost in the following way:

First instance: Of unpermitted work identified after February 1, 2018:

1. For a duty holder who has no documented instances of unpermitted work within two years prior to the initiation of the investigation and has never received a warning notice or enforcement tool related to unpermitted work, the fee will be waived;
    
2. For a duty holder who has documented instances of unpermitted work within two years prior to the initiation of the investigation or has previously received a warning notice or enforcement tool related to unpermitted work, the flat fee will be applied to one permit (investigation) only.

Subsequent instance(s): Of unpermitted work identified after February 1, 2018:

1. The flat fee may be applied to each permit (investigation) up to a maximum of 5 fees.

The investigation of unpermitted work fee will not be applied where a special inspection fee has previously been applied.

Re-inspection
The re-inspection fee has been implemented for application when a safety officer performs a physical assessment of a previously identified non-compliance and determines that the duty holder has not corrected the non-compliance.

Special inspection
The special inspection fee has been implemented as a standardized fee across all programs for application when a safety officer identifies unpermitted work and performs an assessment.

Once a safety officer has documented the unpermitted work and the associated inspection, Technical Safety BC will apply the special inspection fee on a per permit basis in addition to the permit cost. The special inspection fee will not be applied in instances where the investigation of unpermitted work fee has already been deemed applicable.

Compliance audit
The compliance audit fee has been implemented to recover the costs associated with the performance of compliance audits by Technical Safety BC. This fee will be applied on a per hour basis to all compliance audit activity initiated after February 1, 2018.

In circumstances where a duty holder has been selected for a compliance audit, and no significant non-compliance is identified through the audit process, Technical Safety BC may stay the application fee and waive fees for the audit activities at the discretion of the Compliance & Enforcement Program.

Eric SamuelsonProvincial Safety Manager, Compliance & Enforcement

References:

Safety Standards Act
Electrical Safety Regulation
Elevating Devices Safety Regulation
Gas Safety Regulation
Power Engineers, Boiler, Pressure Vessel & Refrigeration Safety Regulation
Safety Standards General Regulation
Safety Standards Act Repeal and Transitional Provisions Regulations