The Workers' Compensation Board of British Columbia, operating as WorkSafeBC, is a statutory agency that was made in 1917, after the provincial legislature put into force legislation passed in 1902.

The Workers Compensation Act[3] assigns the authority to make the Occupational Health and Safety Regulation of British Columbia.

These commissions have attempted to explain working conditions prior to Workers Compensation legislation, where British Columbia's workforce was largely occupied in the fishing, logging, and mining industries.

[5][6] The Royal Commissions concluded that documented injuries are limited, with the exception of mining, and therefore little is known of working conditions before the Workers Compensation Act (WCA).

One line from a Royal Commission document reads, "There are no sources to reveal nineteenth-century workplace conditions in two other significant B.C.

The ability to prevent these injuries is best evidenced by several Workers Compensation letters urging employers to follow new and existing safeguards.

[8] Employees most likely knew of the condition of the unsafe work, as litigation became the primary means of seeking some compensation.

Eventually, with capitalist tendencies, canneries began hiring and equipping more Japanese fishermen as a means of cheap labour.

Early on this was done in large basins filled with cold sea water and later through a mechanized process involving conveyor belts.

[11] The cold water and repetitive motions involved in cleaning away fish slime and guts made for not entirely pleasant conditions.

[14] However, the Employers Liability Act was very limited in its beneficiaries, to only people 21 years and older who were either railroad workers or manual laborers.

Employers also began to feel uneasy as British Columbia's economy was suffering and a single lawsuit could cause significant debts.

In 1916 a document titled the "Pineo Report" suggested that British Columbia should follow the example of Ontario and implement an administration board.

[18] The report's suggestions were made necessary as the Workmen's Compensation Act, with the new option of arbitration, seemed ineffective in decreasing litigation.

Unsurprisingly, preventing workplace incidents and enabling compensation are values shared by WorkSafeBC today as were addressed by the "Pineo Report".

The regulations allowed finances to be collected from employees at a fixed rate per day while the employers would cover any outstanding costs.