The Workers Compensation Act (Act) is being reviewed by British Columbia’s Office of the Legislative Counsel as part of a standard statute revision process. Changes made pursuant to the Statute Revision Act will result in editorial changes to language, as well as renumbering of sections, parts, and divisions of the Act.

At issue is the consequential revisions required for the policies in the Prevention Manual, to ensure they continue to reflect the legislation. These changes would all be housekeeping in nature, meaning there is no change in the substance of the applicable law or policy.

WorkSafeBC’s governing body, the Board of Directors, has authorized WorkSafeBC’s senior executive member responsible for policy development to make certain housekeeping amendments to published policy documents. Despite this, because of the broad impact of the anticipated changes, the Policy, Regulation and Research Division is releasing a discussion paper explaining the proposed housekeeping amendments to the Prevention Manual to stakeholders for information and comment.

Proposed deletions of policy wording are identified with a strikethrough and additions are identified in bold.

Discussion paper

There are a number of ways for stakeholders to provide feedback on the draft policy housekeeping amendments:

The consultation period will end on Friday, February 15, 2019. While housekeeping amendments to policy do not require a decision by WorkSafeBC’s Board of Directors, if any related policy decision-making should be required, the Board of Directors will consider stakeholder feedback before making a decision.

Please note that all comments become part of the Policy, Regulation and Research Division’s database and may be published, including the identity of organizations and those participating on behalf of organizations. The identity of those who have participated on their own behalf will be kept confidential according to the provisions of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.