British Columbia charges a combined 12 percent (5 percent GST plus 7 percent provincial PST), pays a minimum wage of $18.25 an hour, and gives you a short 45 days to file a builders lien, with a 10 percent holdback. Prompt payment has been enacted but is not yet in force, your board is WorkSafeBC, and small claims splits between the Civil Resolution Tribunal and the Provincial Court. BC also brought in compulsory trade certification in late 2023 after two decades without it. This guide is the one-page summary; each topic links to a fuller guide.
Sales tax
BC did not harmonize. You deal with two separate sales taxes: the 5 percent federal GST, which is a recoverable value-added tax, and a 7 percent provincial PST, which is not. PST is a tax on the final purchaser, so a contractor who installs materials into real property is usually treated as the end consumer and pays PST on those materials at purchase, rather than charging PST on the contract price. The combined headline rate is 12 percent, but the GST and PST behave very differently, and you cannot recover PST the way you recover GST.
Minimum wage
The general minimum wage is $18.25 an hour, one of the highest in the country, reviewed each year on 1 June. It is the floor for any employee, and BC indexes future increases to inflation.
Builders lien and holdback
BC gives a lien claimant only 45 days to file a claim of lien, running from the issue of a certificate of completion or substantial completion of the head contract, or the end of the work. There is no separate short perfection window like Ontario's: after filing you have a year to start an action and register a certificate of pending litigation. The statutory holdback is 10 percent. The 45-day clock is tight, so missing it is the most common way BC subtrades lose their lien rights.
Prompt payment
BC passed prompt-payment legislation in late 2025 (Bill 20-2025 received Royal Assent on 27 November 2025), but it is enacted, not yet in force. Until it is proclaimed and brought into effect, BC has no statutory prompt-payment or adjudication regime, so payment timing is governed by your contract and the general lien remedy. Treat any "BC prompt payment" claim with caution and confirm the in-force date before relying on it.
Workers comp
Your board is WorkSafeBC. The 2026 average base premium is about $1.55 per $100 of assessable payroll, with the maximum wage rate set at $127,500. That $1.55 is the province-wide average across all industries: your construction classification unit rate will differ, so check your unit's rate with WorkSafeBC rather than budgeting on the average.
Licensing and codes
There is no general renovation licence, but anyone building a new home needs a Licensed Residential Builder licence from BC Housing. Seven trades became compulsory on 1 December 2023, all electrical and mechanical, so the electrician, gasfitter or refrigeration mechanic on your job needs certification from SkilledTradesBC. Two code points matter: the BC Building Code 2024 came into force on 8 March 2024, and the City of Vancouver does not use the provincial code at all, it enforces its own Vancouver Building By-law, so a job inside Vancouver follows different rules from one in Burnaby or Surrey.
Small claims and quirks
BC routes small claims by amount: the Civil Resolution Tribunal handles claims up to $5,000 online, and the Provincial Court (Small Claims) handles disputes from $5,001 up to $35,000. The two BC quirks to remember are the unusually tight 45-day lien window and the separate Vancouver by-law, both of which catch out tradespeople used to other provinces (see Working in Ontario for the longer 60-day comparison).
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