Escalator Field Guide
Elevator Field Guide
iOSBC's elevator code adoption timeline
Every edition BC has published, adopted, or skipped, from CAN/CSA-B44-94 to today's B44-16. One timeline, with every document linked.
Every full and of the elevator and escalator safety code British Columbia has adopted, plus every companion book in the same family the province has taken up, retired, or never adopted at all. When each one became law, which regulation did it, and which of them govern work in the province right now.
Two marks to know: explains a term right here. A blue link with an arrow, like B.C. Reg. 101/2004, opens the source document in a new tab. The pill-shaped chips under each timeline event are that event’s supporting documents. Clicking one opens the document scrolled to the key passage, with that passage highlighted (in most modern browsers). A few destinations (PDFs and Technical Safety BC’s site) can’t be auto-highlighted, so those chips say where to look instead.
The question this page answers: which parts of the elevator code are BC law right now, and how did the province get there? Here is where things stand.
British Columbia is on ASME A17.1-2016 / CSA B44-16 today: in force since 30 April 2020, and the code that governs elevator and escalator work in the province right now.
BC runs years behind the newest edition — on purpose. Three newer editions exist and BC has adopted none of them (B44:19, B44:22, B44:25). Adopting a new edition is a deliberate regulatory act, not something that happens automatically when CSA publishes a book. BC once ran nearly a decade on a single edition, skipping two in a row.
A unit’s vintage decides which rules bind its design, not the calendar. A unit’s structural requirements freeze to whichever edition was in force when it was built or last majorly altered. The current edition’s ongoing maintenance and inspection rules apply to every unit in service, regardless of age.
The core code isn’t the only book in play. BC also adopts the performance-based code (A17.7 / B44.7), has retired two companion books over the years, and points at a third — A17.6 — that it never adopted at all but that still decides when suspension and governor ropes have to be replaced.
Every book BC has adopted, retired, or skipped
A code edition doesn’t expire the day a newer one is published. It stays valid law until BC formally adopts its replacement, which can take years. So this list tracks two separate things at once. The dot on the line is the legal status: a book CSA published, a book that became BC law, or a book that stopped being BC law. The coloured ribbon down the left of each card is which book the entry is about, and a card can carry more than one ribbon, because a single regulation has more than once moved several books on the same day. This timeline starts at the first switch BC’s own online archive can confirm, in 2003 — not because nothing came before it. Older editions almost certainly governed BC work too; they just aren’t documented anywhere we could find, which the first entry below explains.
CAN/CSA-B44-94 was already BC law when this trail picks up
This is the earliest edition BC’s own online regulation archive can confirm, not the first edition ever. CAN/CSA-B44-94, with Supplements 1 and 2, was already in force by the time the record starts; still-earlier editions (a 1985 book, and others before that) almost certainly governed BC work too, in their own time, but no archive found preserves when BC adopted them. None of that makes an older edition invalid. Each one stays the law until BC adopts its replacement, which is exactly what the rest of this timeline tracks. We know B44-94 was still BC law in early 2003 because that year’s regulation says its era “no longer applies” from a specific date: the next entry below.
CSA publishes B44-00
The next full edition of the Canadian elevator and escalator code, CSA B44-00. BC keeps running on B44-94 for three more years before adopting it.
CSA publishes B44-00 Update No. 1
The first booklet to B44-00. BC won’t adopt it for another 19 months.
BC begins allowing B44-00, in the alternative
BC permits CSA B44-00 to the outgoing CAN/CSA-B44-94, a four-month overlap before it becomes mandatory.
B44-94 withdrawn: B44-00 stands alone
The overlap window ends. CAN/CSA-B44-94 is withdrawn, and the BC-modified CSA B44-00 — plain, no updates yet — becomes the only code in force.
The electrical-equipment book retires the same day
What ended that day was a whole code set, not just B44-94. CAN/CSA-B44.1-M91 / ASME A17.5-1991 — the elevator and escalator electrical equipment book — stopped applying too, its subject matter folded into B44-00. BC has never adopted a separate electrical-equipment book since. When BC first took it up is not recorded in any archive we could find; that it was still law until this date is.
BC adopts B44-00 with Updates 1–3
A new regulation adopts CSA B44-00 with Update No. 1 (Sept 2002), No. 2 (May 2003), and No. 3 (Dec 2003) — all three at once, nineteen months after the first of them was published.
CSA publishes B44-04
The next full edition of the Canadian code. BC stays on its modified B44-00 for now. This edition doesn’t become BC law for almost three years.
BC adopts B44-04
BC adopts CSA B44-04, with No. 1 and Update No. 1 (May 2006).
One book for two countries: A17.1-2007 / B44-07
ASME and CSA merge their two codes into a single book, ASME A17.1-2007/CSA B44-07. Every edition since covers both countries. BC adopts it more than three years later.
BC takes on the 2007 family, then a nine-and-a-half-year hold
One regulation brought in three books at once. BC then skips the next two editions entirely and runs on B44-07 until 2020, provable from the regulation’s .
- ASME A17.1-2007 / CSA B44-07: the core code, and the edition that governs until 2020
- ASME A17.7-2007 / CSA B44.7-07: the performance-based code. Still in force today
- CSA B44.2-07: maintenance requirements and intervals. Dropped in 2020
B44-10, the first edition BC skips
A new edition of the harmonized book. BC never adopts this one. The province stays on B44-07.
B44-13, skipped too
The second edition in a row BC never adopts. The province is still running on B44-07, now six years old.
B44-16 is published
The edition BC runs on today, though it sits on the shelf for another three and a half years before BC adopts it.
B44:19 is out — and BC still hasn’t adopted B44-16
The next edition arrives before BC adopts the previous one. BC never adopts B44:19. It goes straight from B44-07 to B44-16 the following spring.
B44-16, today’s code
The edition in force in BC now, and the one this timeline’s answer above refers to.
B44.2 retires, absorbed into B44-16
The maintenance-intervals book left the schedule the same day B44-16 arrived. Its job moved into section 8.6 of B44-16, which is exactly why BC’s 2019 transition order made contractors set out how they would comply with 8.6. The regulation still listed B44.2 on 22 July 2019 and no longer listed it on 30 April 2020.
B44:22 is published
Another edition of the harmonized book. BC stays on B44-16.
B44:25, the newest edition
The most recent book of the code itself, named for its 2025 cycle, released 14 January 2026. BC law still points at B44-16 — three editions back — so B44-16 remains the code that governs BC work today.
Adopted, or just pointed at?
BC’s regulation does two different things with other people’s books, and the difference decides how much of a book you are on the hook for.
Adopted: BC makes the whole book law. Everything in it applies to you. That is the list of codes in BC’s regulation: B44-16, B355, Z98 and the rest.
Pointed at: BC writes its own rule, and borrows a page from someone else’s book as the test. Only the part BC points at applies.
Both are enforceable — neither is a loophole. But they answer different questions: which books bind me, and which books do I need on the shelf.
Since 30 April 2020, BC has replaced two of B44-16’s maintenance clauses with its own wording — and its own wording points somewhere else. Suspension means and governor ropes must be replaced when they “no longer conform to the applicable requirements of ASME A17.6”. A17.6 appears nowhere in BC’s list of adopted codes, but BC law sends you to it. You are not bound by the rest of A17.6, only the part BC points at. B.C. Reg. 101/2004, Schedule ss. 10 and 11: Reg 101/2004, current
The rest of the family
Four books in the A17 family have never been BC law, in any form. A17.2 (the guide inspectors use to verify the code), A17.3 (the retroactive floor for older equipment), A17.4 (evacuating passengers from a stuck car) and A18.1 (platform lifts, where BC adopts CSA B355 instead).
A17.3 is the notable absence. Where jurisdictions adopt it, it does the heavy lifting on older buildings, setting the minimum every existing unit must still meet regardless of its age. BC covers that ground a different way, through B44-16’s own maintenance and inspection rules in section 8.6, which apply to every unit in service no matter when it was built.
Which edition binds a given unit
Built or last majorly altered before 30 April 2020
- Structural and design requirements freeze to whichever edition was actually in force at that date: B44-94, B44-00, B44-04, or B44-07, depending on the year. A unit is never retroactively rebuilt to a newer edition’s design rules.
- Ongoing maintenance, inspection, and testing obligations (the code’s Part 8) still follow the current edition, B44-16, because those requirements apply to existing installations, not just new ones.
- A major alteration resets the clock: it puts that unit under whichever edition was in force at the time of the alteration, not its original installation date.
Built or altered 30 April 2020 or later
- Held to B44-16 in full: design, construction, and ongoing testing alike.
- If a future edition is adopted, the same freeze rule applies: this unit’s design stays governed by B44-16 unless it too is later majorly altered.
Looking for the SSPI question specifically?
This page covers every codebook edition BC has adopted. It doesn’t touch the step/skirt performance index, the loaded gap, or when escalator testing began. That’s a narrower, more contested question with its own page: SSPI in British Columbia, on one timeline.
Working in Ontario as well? Ontario runs on a different edition and has done since 2012. It skipped B44-16 entirely, the very edition BC runs today. Its record also reaches back to 1954, and its adoptions typically carry two dates rather than one: Ontario’s elevator code adoption timeline. Alberta is a third case again. It refused the 2022 edition outright and moves to the 2025 code in 2027: Alberta’s elevator code timeline. All three side by side, and why they rarely match: BC vs Ontario vs Alberta.
Every source behind this page
- B44-85 and B44-94’s own BC adoption dates aren’t confirmed. BC Laws’ online archive doesn’t reach back far enough to show when either edition first became BC law, only that B44-94 was still in force immediately before February 2003.
- This is a research summary, not legal advice. Adoption dates and enforcement practice change. For a binding answer about a specific unit, ask Technical Safety BC or your authority having jurisdiction.
Working to the escalator code on the job?
Escalator Field Command carries the Escalator Field Guide: the escalator code in plain English, searchable and offline. It does not cover the adoption history on this page.
