The Legislative Assembly recently made changes to British Columbia's Safety Standards Act. These changes will provide owners and operators of equipment covered by the Act with the opportunity to take an "alternative safety approach" in order to comply with the objectives of the Act.
There are two options within the Alternative Safety Approaches program:
1. A Safety Management Plan, or
2. An Equivalent Standards Agreement.
Both approaches provide the owners or operators of equipment with flexibility in how to manage safety. A Safety Management Plan is a broad approach and includes the safety of an entire facility, while Equivalent Standards Agreements apply to one aspect of an installation or operation. It is important to understand that these approaches are voluntary and optional.
Reasons for the change
The Act was changed in response to stakeholder concerns regarding the prescriptive nature of many regulations. With the changes, owners and operators may now:
- Streamline the approval of new and innovative technologies;
- Use alternative approaches where prescriptive regulations are perceived to be a barrier to trade and investment; and
- Adopt and implement best practices for managing safety as established in other jurisdictions.
Who can apply
The initial focus of the safety management plans will be on the bioenergy sector to support the BC Bioenergy Strategy. Over time, all industry sectors regulated by the BC Safety Authority may have the option of a Safety Management Plan.
Alternative Safety Approaches consultation
During the months of July and August, we gathered stakeholder input through a series of broad inustry consultation sessions and bioenergy sector workshops. There were:
- 5 regional stakeholder sessions held across the province.
- Sessions held with the Province of BC representatives, local governments with delegated authority to administer the Safety Standards Act, and the Boiler Technology Committee.
- 2 workshop sessions on the application of Alternative Safety Approaches in the bioenergy industry.
For further information on Alternative Safety Approaches, you can view or download the slideshow from the consultation sessions.
Ongoing stakeholder engagement
We are continuing to meet with industry stakeholders on this initiative and would still like to hear form you in order to draft regulations as well as policies and procedures that would make Alternative Safety Approaches work in your industry. Please read the discussion paper on Alternative Safety Approaches and use our comment form to provide your input.
You can also submit your feedback by:
Email:
Jim.Allaway@safetyauthority.ca
Mail:
BC Safety Authority
# 200 - 5050 Sixth Street
New Westminster, BC, V3L 0E1
Attn: Jim Allaway, Leader, Stakeholder Engagement Programs
Fax:
778-396-2064
Timelines
The new regulations are schedules to be developed as follows:
