Technical Safety BC: Remote assessments

In April, Technical Safety BC made the decision to suspend all in-person assessments, with the exception of incidents or hazards that are deemed critical to the safety system.

What this means to the industry is that once a request for inspection (declaration) has been received, safety officers will assess the information to determine the appropriate next step, which can be one of the following options:

• Waive the inspection: safety officers accept the permit holder's declaration of compliance and do not perform a remote or physical inspection. This means no inspection will be performed and no certificate of inspection will be issued.
• Schedule a physical inspection: in cases where a high hazard has been identified or is suspected, a local safety officer will arrange to physically attend the site to perform the inspection. A certificate of inspection will be issued to the permit holder upon completion of the physical inspection.
• Schedule a remote inspection: they perform the inspection without physically attending site. To carry out a remote inspection, a local safety officer will request one or more of the information types listed below. Alternatively you can contact your local safety officer to arrange a time to walk through the installation via live video conferencing tools. A certificate of inspection will be issued to the permit holder upon completion of the remote inspection.

In cases when an inspection fee applies to the work being assessed, remote inspections are charged at 30 minute increments, with a minimum 30 minute charge, according to the fee schedules (view the electrical, gas, and BPV fee schedules).

To support the remote inspection process you will be requested to provide specific information that clearly demonstrates the scope of the regulated work or product. Types of information that may be requested include, but are not limited to:

• Photo logs (time stamped when necessary);
• Video logs;
• Documentation (PDFs, Word, etc.); and
• Live video conferencing.

As every permit and assessment has its own unique considerations, they cannot advise exactly what information type will be required prior to receiving a request for inspection (declaration). For guidance on what may be required to support a remote inspection specific to your installation, contact your local safety officer.

You are encouraged to record your installations through photo and/or video logs, and to retain copies of relevant documentation stored on site, so that these are available if requested by your local safety officer.

Questions can be emailed to contact@technicalsafetybc.ca, with the subject line “Remote assessments."