Thursday, March 28, 2024

BC extends state of emergency and tallies fines for COVID-19-related offences

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Once again, the BC government has formally extended the provincial state of emergency.

The original declaration was made on March 18th, 2020 the day after provincial health officer (PHO) Dr. Bonnie Henry declared a public health emergency.

The state of emergency allows health and emergency management officials to continue to use extraordinary powers under the Emergency Program Act (EPA) to support the province’s COVID-19 pandemic response.

The province continues to issue tickets for owners, operators and event organizers who host an event or gathering that contravene the PHO’s orders.

Between August 21st 2020, and June 4th, 2021, over 2,000 violation tickets have been issued.

Since the pandemic began, police agencies across BC have issued 191 violation tickets to individuals who were in contravention of the Federal Quarantine Act, totalling $404,829.
Since the start of the pandemic, WorkSafeBC has conducted 28,335 COVID-19 related worksite inspections.

419 tickets have been issued for $2,300 to owners or organizers contravening the provincial health officer’s (PHO) order on gatherings and events; 41 of the $2,300 violation tickets for contravention of the PHO Food and Liquor Serving Premises Order have been issued; and 1,649 tickets for $230 have been issued to individuals who refused to comply with EPA orders.

To date, since fines were increased, 82 $575 violation fines were handed to individuals who promoted or attended a non-compliant event.

Since interprovincial travel has been banned, three tickets have been issued: two $575 tickets to an individual for failing to comply with the travel restrictions and one $230 ticket for failing to stop at a road check.

The province announced the enhanced enforcement measures on December 16th, 2020.

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