Fee Schedules

We work with industry stakeholders to administer safety legislation and regulation and oversee the safe installation and operation of technical systems and equipment in British Columbia. As a not-for profit organization, we depend on fees and service revenue to deliver our safety services. Fees pay for:   

• Incident investigations.  We follow up on incidents and hazards reported to us and investigate causes and contributing factors. We publicly share our investigation reports to encourage learnings and prevent future incidents.   
• Enforcement activities. We take enforcement actions that promote an equitable safety system where all participants are compliant with regulations. Recent changes to legislation allow us to enforce against unlicensed individuals and businesses who advertise they can do regulated work, a step in the right direction to tackle the underground economy.     
• Safety education. Through our education programs, we share our technical expertise and safety knowledge to empower others to make informed decisions.   
• Public safety campaigns and outreach. We bring awareness to the public and equipment owners of their safety responsibilities, such as the importance of hiring licensed contractors to maintain their equipment. Through public notifications for recalls, hazard awareness, and educational campaigns, we help communities stay informed about potential safety risks and empower them to prevent hazards when using or interacting with technical equipment.   
• Safety risk assessment. We conduct regulatory work that is necessary for the oversight of the safety system, including risk analysis, code reviews, and new treatment programs.    
• Cost recovery model. The costs of administering our safety services, including recovering costs for services that do not have fees, and investing in long-term foundational improvements. Additionally, this accounts for indirect costs of business such as building rental and vehicle amortization, as well as maintaining an operating reserve for emergencies and uncertain economic conditions.   
• Business transformation. Our digital transformation project improves the way clients transact with us or access information from us. This includes work on our new licensing and certification platform which has cut down wait times for licensing and certification renewal.  

There are many reasons to set a new fee or adjust a fee, including regulatory or legislative change, changes to the way we administer programs, and client feedback. 

When setting a new fee or reviewing an existing fee, we want them to be: 

• Simple: Fee categories are kept to a minimum, standardized, and bundled wherever possible.  
• Sustainable: Financial sustainability is supported by designing fees to cover program costs where possible. Fees are evaluated and adjusted to adapt to the changing environment and technology.  
• Fair: Fees are designed to reflect safety risk, encourage safety-minded behaviour, reflect fair value, and not to act as barriers to participation. Efforts are made to ensure that no groups are disproportionately negatively impacted by fees. 

All technologies that we regulate must be independently sustainable so that one technology is not being subsidized by revenue from another technology.

The fee-setting process includes four steps to ensure the public has a say and that the fees are calculated fairly. 

1. Modelling the program’s direct costs and calculating indirect costs.
2. Public consultation on the fee, analysis of feedback, and a consultation report.
3. Decision on whether to implement the change or not (taking into account consultation results and program requirements).
4. If the decision is made to implement the change, a 90-day notification period is provided to clients before the fee takes effect.

Please read our Refund Policy for more information.