The Contaminated Site Regulation (CSR) has been amended under the Better Regulations for BC initiative announced on October 27, 2025. The amendments enhance the ease of doing business in BC by reducing the regulatory burden on citizens and businesses – for instance, simplifying processes, eliminating unnecessary steps and modernizing regulatory requirements by enabling the use of digital forms. The amendments came into effect on October 9 and 27, 2025.  

The amendments:  

• Provide an exemption from the soil relocation requirements for source sites with a Certificate of Compliance or Final Determination the site is not contaminated as long as the site has not become contaminated since the certification document was issued and the soil and vapour at the source site does not contain any substance with a concentration greater than or equal to the numerical standard for the soil or vapour that applies to the receiving site.  
• Clarify that the exemption for quarries is for those with Schedule 2 uses and the soil was extracted in accordance with a permit under the Mines Act and was not affected by a specified industrial or commercial use or another source of contamination.  
• Clarify that soil is exempt from vapour analysis for soil relocation if the soil does not contain any volatile substance with a concentration greater than CSR standards.  
• Update Schedules 8 (Soil Relocation Notification Form) and 8.1 (High Volume Soil Receiving Site Registration Form) to make them clearer and align with the new exemptions from the soil relocation requirements  
• Exempt properties from submitting a site disclosure statement if 1) they continue the same Schedule 2 use and are upgrading the site, and (2) exempt properties applying for development or building permits solely to complete remediation.  
• Update Schedule 1 site disclosure statement to improve functionality of the digital form  
• Fix incorrect footnotes in Schedule 3.2 to prevent misapplication of standards and provide the correct units for salinity.  
• Fix an error in Schedule 3.1 that changed the soil remediation standard for the substance indeno[123-cd]pyrene, making it 10 times lower than intended.  

Any site disclosure statements submitted after October 9 that qualify for the exemptions listed above can be withdrawn by making a request to the ministry and/or local governments or approving authorities. Applicants may also withdraw release requests made in connection with the withdrawn site disclosure statements without incurring fees. Site disclosure statements submitted prior to October 9, but still in process, can’t be withdrawn, however, the new exemptions will be considered when processing associated release requests.   

BC Laws will be updated in the coming weeks, in the meantime please see the following links: Ministerial Order M316 and Order in Council OIC-484.