Our Inspectors conduct province‐wide onsite inspections of businesses to ensure compliance with BC’s consumer protection legislation, adequacy of their facility, use of appropriate procedures for trust funds and to review the financial condition of our licensed businesses. They perform a preventative and educational role, maintain public relations by liaising with law enforcement and regulatory agencies, and provide advice to our licensed businesses. The position also provides general assistance with investigation and enforcement activities.
Here’s what a day in the life of an Inspector could look like:
When you get to the office, you store your meals for the day in our kitchen and have a quick chat with coworkers before settling in for a day of meaningful work. You typically start with a quick check of emails that have come in from the night before and review your pre-scheduled calendar to prioritize your day. Today it looks like you have an unannounced inspection of a travel agent set in Richmond for 10:30 a.m. and a pre-announced inspection with a municipal cemetery in Delta at 1 p.m. Before you head out, you review the licensed business’ history in our internal database, find what information you can about them on the Internet and update your notes. You also touch base with your Inspection team to see what they have on their agenda and to inform them of where you are going.
Once in the field, you conduct the inspection of the travel agent and find that they have some non-compliance matters that need addressing. You help the business understand the deficiencies that have been found and you explain the process of our work and our enforcement hearings to the business owner. You then grab a bite to eat and have some quiet time to make your notes before heading off to the municipal cemetery. This inspection takes a bit longer than expected but you do finish up by late afternoon. You head back to the office and spend the rest of your day updating your inspection notes.
Once done, you take a quick look at tomorrow’s calendar. A non-inspection day, the focus is on assessing any inspections or complaints investigated or completed in the previous days and working on documenting the cases you have open. This means you need to reference your detailed notes and any evidence you’ve gathered, ensuring alignment with the Acts and Regulations that we are responsible for upholding. You reach out to your colleagues to gather their thoughts and experiences too. Depending on your analysis, you may decide to complete a formal report recommending that we take enforcement action if the business is not in compliance. Feeling prepared for the next day, you make your way out of the office after a few “see ya laters” to your colleagues and head home for the day feeling accomplished.
Think you might want to join our team?
Read The Right Fit, our HR & culture blog, and the careers page of our website. Any new job postings can be found on the Join our talented team menu of our careers page. To learn more about the work we do as a provincial regulator, visit the About us section of www.consumerprotectionbc.ca.