What WorkSafeBC Part 14 Actually Names — Z150, Z248, ASME B30

People say they follow CSA. They say they follow ASME. They say it as if those were one book, and as if saying the letters were the same thing as the law. In British Columbia they are not.

WorkSafeBC enforces the Workers Compensation Act and the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation. For cranes and hoists that is Part 14. For rigging that is Part 15. The Regulation names standards by title and by edition. WorkSafeBC's own note on access to standards is blunt: when a specific edition is referenced, that edition must be followed unless an OHS Guideline accepts another edition as a standard acceptable to the Board.

The Regulation names the book. The edition in the Regulation is the one you can be held to.

WHAT WORKSAFEBC ENFORCES

WorkSafeBC is the Board. It does not sell cranes and it does not write CSA or ASME. It writes and enforces the Regulation. Officers inspect, issue orders, and can stop work. The duties sit on the employer, the supervisor, the owner, the prime contractor where there is one, and the worker. The crane belonging to someone else does not get anyone a free pass.

Section 14.2(1) is the hinge. A crane or hoist must be designed, constructed, assembled, erected, climbed, repositioned, adjusted, disassembled, dismantled, inspected, maintained and operated as specified by the manufacturer or a professional engineer — and it must meet the applicable standard listed in 14.2(2) through (15). Manufacturer or engineer. Named standard as well. If the Regulation is stricter, the Regulation wins.

Part 14 also has its own rules that do not live inside CSA or ASME: rated capacity indication, boom angle and radius indicators, inspection and maintenance records, modifications, certification after a misadventure, operator qualifications, operator certification, pre-use inspection, determining load weight, signals, loads over work areas, tandem and critical lifts, annual inspection of mobile cranes, and the tower-crane sections. Those are WorkSafeBC whether or not you own the CSA PDF.

• 14.34 — only a qualified person who has been instructed, and who can demonstrate competency, operates the crane.
• 14.34.1 — a mobile crane, tower crane or boom truck is operated only by a person with a valid operator's certificate issued by a person acceptable to the Board. In B.C. that is BC Crane Safety.
• 14.35 — pre-use inspection and testing each shift, in the manner specified by the manufacturer, the named 14.2 standard, and the Regulation.
• 14.73.2 and 14.73.3 — since 1 October 2024, tower-crane erection, climbing, repositioning and dismantling under a qualified supervisor, with a Notice of Project to WorkSafeBC at least two weeks before the work.

CSA Z150 — MOBILE

Section 14.2(5) says a mobile crane, telescoping or articulating boom truck or sign truck must meet the requirements of CSA Standard Z150-1998, Safety Code for Mobile Cranes — or one of the two ASME alternatives named in the same subsection.

CSA Z150 is the Canadian safety code on mobile cranes. It is written for lattice and telescopic boom machines on a crawler or wheel-mounted base whose job is hoisting: crawler cranes, truck-mounted cranes, boom trucks, rough-terrain and all-terrain carriers, railway and locomotive cranes. It is about design, construction, load rating, inspection, maintenance, repair, modification, test and operation. It is not a tower-crane code. CSA itself points tower machines to Z248.

CSA has published later editions. Z150-11, Z150-16, Z150:20. The Regulation still names Z150-1998. A newer book on the truck is not automatically the legal edition in B.C. unless WorkSafeBC has accepted it in a guideline. WorkSafeBC does use that power — G14.2(3)(c) accepts CMAA No. 74 (2015) in place of the 2004 overhead-crane specification named in 14.2(3). As of August 2026 there is no equivalent guideline substituting Z150:20 for Z150-1998. Follow the named edition. If the manufacturer or a professional engineer requires a later edition on top of that, that is 14.2(1) talking. It does not erase the Regulation.

CSA Z248 — TOWER

Section 14.2(6) says a tower, hammerhead crane or self-erecting tower crane must meet CSA Standard Z248-2004, Code for Tower Cranes. There is no 'or ASME' in that subsection. For construction tower cranes in B.C., Z248 is the named code.

CSA Z248 covers design, construction, installation, dismantling, operation, inspection, testing and maintenance of tower cranes — including self-erecting machines, fixed or travelling bases, and climbing or increasing-height arrangements. WorkSafeBC guideline G14.2-1 is the sentence most crews skip: the scope of Z248-2004 makes it applicable to all tower cranes, irrespective of use or industry service.

That same guideline is why people get ASME B30.4 wrong. Section 14.2(7) names ASME B30.4-2003 for a portal, tower or pillar crane. G14.2-1 says the scope of B30.4, as it applies to tower cranes, is limited to a tower crane not used in construction. Construction tower, hammerhead, self-erecting: 14.2(6) and Z248-2004. Do not run a high-rise erection on a B30.4 loophole.

CSA has later tower editions too — Z248-17, and a 2026 edition exists. The Regulation still names Z248-2004. Same rule as mobile: the edition in Part 14 is the one WorkSafeBC can hold you to unless a guideline says otherwise. Using a newer CSA as extra discipline is not the same thing as the Regulation having moved.

WHAT ASME B30 ACTUALLY IS

ASME B30 is not one standard. It is a series written by the ASME B30 committee on cranes and related equipment: construction, installation, operation, inspection, testing and maintenance. Each volume is a different machine or a different piece of gear. B30.5 is mobile and locomotive cranes. B30.3 is construction tower cranes in the ASME system. B30.4 is portal, tower and pedestal cranes. B30.9 is slings. B30.22 is articulating boom cranes. There are more.

In B.C., ASME B30 is law only where the Regulation names a volume and an edition. It is not imported wholesale because a superintendent likes American charts. The Standards Council of Canada has mapped which B30 volumes show up in provincial regulations. None of them are federal OHS law. In B.C. the named volumes in Part 14 and Part 15 are the ones that count.

WHICH B30 VOLUMES PART 14 NAMES

For the machines GOSPEL actually supplies people onto, this is the map in section 14.2 as it stood in August 2026.

Read 14.2(5) as written. It is or, not and. A mobile crane must meet Z150-1998, or B30.5-2004, or — if it is an articulating boom — B30.22-2005. Meeting B30.5 does not mean you can ignore the rest of Part 14. It means that is one of the design-and-safety codes the subsection accepts for that machine type.

ASME B30.3, the ASME construction-tower volume, is not named in 14.2(6). Construction tower cranes in B.C. are Z248-2004. If someone tells you the site is 'on B30.3' for a hammerhead in British Columbia, ask them to show you the section. G14.2-1 is the WorkSafeBC answer.

B30.9 — SLINGS, IN PART 15

Rigging is a different part. Section 15.30 says that unless otherwise required by the Regulation, wire rope, alloy steel chain, metal mesh, synthetic fibre rope, synthetic roundslings and synthetic fibre web slings must meet ASME B30.9-2006, Slings. That is the B30 volume most riggers actually live in. Part 15 still adds its own rules on top: qualified riggers, design factors in Table 15-1, inspection before use, sling angles, identification, rejection criteria. B30.9 does not cancel 15.2.

WHAT THIS DOES NOT MEAN

• It does not mean a later CSA or ASME edition is illegal to use. It means the edition named in the Regulation is the compliance edition unless a guideline accepts another.
• It does not mean manufacturer instructions are optional. 14.2(1) puts them in the same sentence as the standard.
• It does not mean ASME B30 as a series is 'enforced in B.C.' Only named volumes and named years are.
• It does not mean Technical Safety BC replaced WorkSafeBC on a construction tower. Part 14 is a WorkSafeBC file.
• It does not replace the load chart, the LMI, or the site. Those still win the lift.
• It is not legal advice. Read the current Part 14 and Part 15. They move.

If you cannot name the section, you are not following the section. You are following a rumour.

The work is done to the Regulation, to the standards the Regulation names, to the manufacturer, and to the site. Where they conflict, the stricter applicable requirement wins. Law always wins. That is already on the homepage. This is what those letters actually point at.

WORKSAFEBC — PART 14 CRANES AND HOISTS →

WORKSAFEBC — PART 15 RIGGING →

07 — CRANE OPERATIONS →

READ PROVEN →