About this site

Who runs it

Trade Schools & Permit Info BC (tradeschoolsandpermitinfo.ca) is written and maintained by Mark Dupuis, who is based in Duncan, in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island. It is an independent site. It is not run by, or affiliated with, any municipality, the Province of British Columbia, SkilledTradesBC, the Red Seal Program, Technical Safety BC, WorkSafeBC or BC Housing.

Why it exists

Information about getting into a trade in BC, and about getting a building permit, is spread across dozens of official websites. There are separate city permit pages, fee bylaws in PDFs, SkilledTradesBC program pages, Red Seal exam material and school program listings. The goal here is simple: put the practical steps in one place, in plain language, and link back to the official source for every rule, fee and form so you can check it yourself.

Mark Dupuis lives in Duncan, BC, and built this site to give BC tradespeople and homeowners plain, sourced information on building permits and the Red Seal. Every guide links to the official sources it relies on and shows a “Last reviewed” date, so you can see how current it is and check it yourself.

Mark also writes Red Seal exam study books.

Editorial policy

General information, not advice

Everything on this site is general information to help you plan. It is not legal, engineering, building-code, financial or career advice. Permit rules, fees, exam policies and wages change. Before you apply, spend money or start work, confirm the details with the official authority: your municipality or regional district, SkilledTradesBC, the Red Seal Program, Technical Safety BC, WorkSafeBC or BC Housing. Each guide links to the pages it relies on.

How pages are researched

• Fees, requirements and contact details come from official published sources: city and regional district permit pages and fee schedules, SkilledTradesBC program pages, red-seal.ca, Technical Safety BC, gov.bc.ca and Government of Canada Job Bank wage data.
• If a figure can’t be tied to an official source, it doesn’t get published. The guide describes the rule in general terms and links to the authority instead.
• Each guide ends with a Sources and official links section, and those links are checked when the page is reviewed.

How pages are reviewed and updated

• Every guide shows a “Last reviewed” date. That is the date the page was last checked against its sources.
• Pages are re-checked when an authority announces a change (a new fee bylaw, a new compulsory trade, a code update), when a reader reports a problem, and during periodic site-wide reviews.
• Pages that are thin, out of date or duplicated are merged into a stronger guide or removed, not left up to go stale.

How to report an error

If something is wrong or out of date, please email markdupuis9941@gmail.com with the page address, what’s wrong, and, if you can, a link to the official source. Corrections are checked against that source before the page is changed. You can also use the contact page.

How the site is funded

• Display advertising through Google AdSense, and sales of my own Red Seal exam-prep books. Advertisers have no say in what the guides say.

No school, municipality or company pays for its description, its position in the directory, or any number on this site. See the privacy policy for how ads and cookies work, and the terms of use.

Contact

Email: markdupuis9941@gmail.com · Contact page · Duncan, British Columbia, Canada