Providing regulatory oversite in BC mining, introducing the new Technical Compliance Unit (TCU)

The Auditor General’s office of British Columbia identified a need for greater compliance verification and inspections in technical disciplines at mine sites in British Columbia. At the time of the Auditor General’s report, technical staff within the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation were tasked with both compliance and permitting responsibilities. To separate regulatory functions and tasks between permitting and compliance activities, the Technical Compliance Unit (TCU) was created. The TCU focuses on compliance associated with mining legislation, regulations and permit conditions in technical disciplines including geotechnical/tailings storage facilities/dam requirements, geoscience, and reclamation. The goals of the TCU are to promote regulatory compliance, conduct inspections at all major mines in the province, address non-compliance, contribute to policies, guidelines, and procedures so that technical inspections and regulatory compliance is applied consistently across the province, and support mines in moving toward successful reclamation and environmental protection. The TCU, under direction of the Chief Inspector of Mines, is ultimately responsible for verifying compliance with the Mines Act, the Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mines in BC (the Code), and with Mines Act permit conditions. To fulfil this responsibility, TCU inspectors conduct field and desktop inspections of mines, manage complaints from communities and individuals that are technical in nature, provide support to mines in applying the act, Code, and permit conditions on the landscape as requested or required, and escalate orders should the need arise. Creation of the TCU provides greater compliance oversight across the province and addressed the “risk of regulatory capture” (Bellringer 2016) raised in the Auditor General’s report. The new division of labour between TCU and permitting means changes in who will be conducting inspections at mines sites, the nature and focus of those inspections and some process changes with respect to oversight of code required reports.Non UBCUnreviewedOthe