The counties are: Prior to 1895, the districts of the province of British Columbia and its predecessors, the colonies of Vancouver Island and British Columbia, were separated into districts for county courts, supreme courts and shrievalties.
The Counties Definition Act of 1895 defined the divisions as the five original counties of Victoria, Vancouver, Westminster, Yale, Cariboo, and Kootenay and created procedures for the administration of justice including the appointment of registrars and sheriffs.
[1] Beginning in the colonial era, each county appointed its own high sheriff.
Over the next century, duties of the county sheriff and their deputies ranged from tax collector to executioner.
That is the only use of county in the British Columbian government, which is a reference only to such court districts and has no similarity to the meaning in the other provinces of Canada or elsewhere.