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Regulatory compliance How we work with you Your role Enforcement action Contact us

Regulatory Compliance

Learn about our cooperative approach to regulatory compliance. We’re focused on assisting operators, owners and licensees in meeting public health requirements.

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Regulatory compliance

Our goal is to achieve regulatory compliance, in order to protect overall population health. We are open in our decision-making, and use a step-by-step approach to achieve positive health outcomes.

How we work with you

Our desire is to work cooperatively using a step-by-step approach. We focus first on providing guidance to assist operators, owners and licensees in meeting public health requirements. This figure provides examples of the various types of progressive compliance methods we use to achieve our goals.

Our promise to you

We will:

  • Respect you: We know that most people have good intentions and are trying to do the right thing. We believe that you know your facility or situation better than we do. When we work cooperatively, we can achieve even better results.
  • Treat you fairly: We will be professional, honest, fair, and make decisions objectively, based on your particular situation. When we ask you to make changes, we will explain why and listen to your views.
  • Getting things right: We will provide you with professional advice, resources and early support that helps you know the required standards and what you can do to meet them.
  • Protect your information: We will only ask you for the information we need to do our job. We will protect this information and only share it when necessary and appropriate by law.
  • Guided by public health laws and ethics: We are required to act in the best interest of the public and to use a step-by-step approach for resolving problems. We use the enforcement authority that comes from public health laws only as a last resort, when the public is at risk.

Your role

The operator, owner or licensee often plays a big part in influencing the officer’s actions. When there is a good working relationship between the officer and the operator/licensee, the officer will usually have more confidence in the operator/licensee’s willingness to address health risk. The officer’s actions will lean towards being more cooperative, rather than being more “heavy-handed.”

When a situation results in a high risk to the public, officers may need to act more quickly and direct stricter requirements regardless of the relationship.

Steps you should take
  • Be open and honest: Please tell us what you know and ask us questions so that we can fully understand your needs and the realities to ensure the population’s health is protected. We hope you will join us in respectful and collaborative discussion.
  • Be proactive: If you are having any problems, let us know as soon as you can so that we can work towards finding a solution.
  • Assess your health risks: Risk assessment in any situation is not a simple process, although answers to some key questions help guide decisions:
    • What can go wrong?
    • How likely is it to occur?
    • When might it happen?
    • How long might the situation last?
    • Who may be impacted?
    • How serious are the impacts to health and safety?
    • Is there anything in place to minimize these impacts or reduce the chance of something going wrong?

Enforcement action

In the event that compliance cannot be achieved through other progressive enforcement means, Environmental Health Officers, Licensing Officers, Tobacco and Vapour Enforcement Officers and/or Medical Health Officers may issue tickets, orders, and/or proceed to court action, in order to achieve compliance and protect public health.

Current and outstanding enforcement actions

Please note: Visitors to this site are cautioned against interpreting the status of a particular facility based on a single piece of information. Conducting additional research, such as contacting the facility, reviewing documentation and publications available on provincial, Interior Health websites, including our Inspection Reports page may result in a more informed conclusion about a given facility. 

This website conveys information which would otherwise be available by request through the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act of B.C. Every effort is made to keep the information up-to-date and ensure that it is accurate.

Contact us

Our team

We are a diverse team of trained professionals who are skilled at assessing risks, and have specialized knowledge and experience applying public health laws to help ensure that facilities, people and communities are safe and healthy:

Contact your regional team

Our Areas of Service
  • Food safety, commercial and public pool construction and water quality, land use and personal services (including but not limited to tanning, tattooing and piercing)
  • Licensed child care and long-term care
  • Drinking water protection
  • Tobacco and vapour products enforcement 

Find out our office coverage areas.

Decision Review

Review to the decisions reviews and reconsiderations here. 

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