British Columbia is set to become the first jurisdiction in Canada to require dash cameras on heavy commercial trucks. Bill M217, the Dashboard Cameras in Commercial Vehicles Act, passed third reading in the B.C. Legislature in May 2026 with unanimous, all-party support, and it comes into force six months after it receives Royal Assent.
Kordova Tek is headquartered in Vancouver, B.C., so this is home turf for us — and for the thousands of carriers who move freight through the Lower Mainland, over the Coquihalla, and up the Alaska Highway every week. The important thing to understand up front: the mandate is written around the road, not the plate. If your truck is on a B.C. highway, it does not matter whether it is registered in Alberta, Washington, or Texas.
This is a practical compliance checklist, not legal advice. It is built for two audiences at once — Canadian fleets domiciled in or running through B.C., and US carriers whose lanes touch the province. Where a detail is still being finalized in regulation, we say so. Verify the specifics against CVSE and the published regulations before your compliance date.
What exactly does Bill M217 require?
Bill M217 requires an outward-facing dash camera on in-scope commercial vehicles operating on B.C. highways. The bill was sponsored by Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer and, according to Black Press news coverage of the third-reading vote, passed at every stage with unanimous, bipartisan support.
Two things make the law distinctive. First, it is outward-facing only — driver-facing in-cab cameras were deliberately excluded to address privacy concerns raised in committee. Second, as DriveSmartBC and other B.C. sources report, the expected technical baseline is a forward-facing camera that records continuously at a minimum of 1080p, retains at least 72 hours of footage before overwriting, and captures usable video in low-light and adverse-weather conditions.
Treat those specs as reported-and-likely rather than final. The Act sets the framework; the precise equipment standard, penalties, and footage-access rules for enforcement are expected to be set out in regulation. Your first checklist item is simply to watch for the published regulation and confirm the numbers.
Who is in scope — and does it cover US carriers?
Yes, it covers US carriers. The mandate applies to any in-scope commercial vehicle operating on a B.C. highway regardless of where the carrier is registered. A Washington-plated tractor running the Pacific Highway crossing at the Surrey border, or a US carrier transiting B.C. on the Alaska Highway to reach the Yukon and Alaska, is covered the same as a Surrey-based fleet.
As reported, the scope is tied to weight: heavy commercial vehicles with a GVWR or registered gross weight exceeding 11,793 kg (about 26,000 lb). That captures typical Class 8 tractors, large straight trucks, and heavy vocational units, and generally leaves light vans and pickups out.
For cross-border planners, the takeaway is that this is a corridor-transit issue, not just a domicile issue. If you dispatch even occasional loads into or through B.C., those units need to be in scope on your compliance tracker.
What belongs on your equipment-verification checklist?
Start by scoping which units are covered, then verify each one against the standard. Do not assume a camera you already run qualifies — the retention and resolution thresholds are specific.
| Checklist item | What to verify | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Scope the fleet | List every unit over ~11,793 kg GVWR that touches a B.C. highway | Out-of-province units on transit lanes are covered too |
| Camera facing | Forward/outward-facing installed and unobstructed | Only outward-facing is mandated; interior cams are optional |
| Resolution | Records at 1080p or better (confirm final spec in regulation) | Sub-HD footage may not satisfy the standard |
| Retention | Holds at least 72 hours before overwriting | A short loop can wipe evidence before you retrieve it |
| Low-light/adverse | Usable night-vision and bad-weather capture | B.C. runs a lot of dark, wet, mountain miles |
| Continuous recording | Records whenever the vehicle is operating | Gaps undermine the footage's value |
Keep the make, model, firmware version, and install date for each unit. When the regulation lands with a firm spec, you want to re-check against it in an afternoon, not re-audit the fleet from scratch.
How should you update pre-trip and driver procedures?
Add a dash-cam line to your pre-trip. A camera that is unpowered, lens-obstructed, or out of storage is functionally non-compliant even if it is bolted to the glass. The pre-trip check should confirm the camera powers up, the lens is clear, and recording is active.
Then document it. Compliance you cannot show is compliance you cannot prove at roadside. Update your driver procedures so the camera check is logged the same way a light or brake check is, and brief drivers — including US drivers on B.C. transit lanes — on what the law requires and who to call if a camera faults mid-trip. Clear expectations here are also a driver-experience issue; ambiguity at roadside is exactly the kind of friction that erodes trust between the dispatcher and the driver.
How do B.C. privacy rules affect your footage?
Dash cam footage that can identify people is personal information, and how you handle it matters. Private-sector carriers operating in B.C. are generally governed by the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which sets rules for how organizations collect, use, retain, and disclose personal information.
In practice that means putting a written footage policy in place before your first day of compliance: what you collect, how long you keep it, who inside the company can view it, and the conditions under which you would disclose it (for example, to police, to CVSE, or to an insurer after a collision). Because the enforcement rules for how officers can access or seize footage are still being drafted in regulation, keep that policy easy to update.
Retention is a balancing act. Keep footage long enough to serve its purpose — clearing a driver after an incident, supporting an insurance claim — but do not hoard identifiable video indefinitely without a reason. A defined retention window that you actually follow is both good privacy practice and good compliance hygiene.
Who is responsible under a lease — you or the owner-operator?
Responsibility follows the operation, so spell it out in writing. When you run leased or owner-operator equipment, the truck on the B.C. highway still has to be compliant, and a vague handshake about "who buys the camera" is how a unit ends up non-compliant at a scale.
Update your lease and owner-operator agreements to state plainly who installs and maintains the camera, who pays for it, who owns and stores the footage, and who is responsible if the unit is found non-compliant. This is the same discipline the broader compliance clock demands across your operation — the deadlines and duties only protect you if someone specific owns them.
How do you keep multi-jurisdiction compliance in one place?
If you run cross-border, B.C.'s dash cam rule is one more line in a stack that already includes ELD mandates on both sides of the border, IFTA, CVSE and DOT inspection history, and provincial and state-specific rules. Tracking that across spreadsheets and inboxes is how deadlines get missed.
Keeping compliance records in a single system — camera install dates and specs per unit, pre-trip logs, lease responsibilities, footage-retention policy, and renewal dates — means you can answer "are we compliant in B.C.?" with a screen instead of a scramble. This is exactly the kind of visibility a modern TMS with built-in compliance tracking is meant to give a fleet: one place where every unit's status is current, no matter how many jurisdictions your lanes cross.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does B.C.'s dash cam law apply to US carriers?
Yes. Bill M217 applies to any in-scope commercial vehicle operating on a B.C. highway regardless of where the carrier is registered. US fleets running the Alaska Highway or into the Lower Mainland are covered the same as B.C. carriers.
When does Bill M217 take effect?
The Act comes into force six months after it receives Royal Assent. The bill passed third reading in May 2026, which points to a live compliance date in late 2026 or early 2027. Confirm the exact date with CVSE before assuming your fleet is out of scope.
Which trucks are covered by the B.C. dash cam mandate?
As reported, the mandate covers heavy commercial vehicles with a GVWR or registered gross weight exceeding 11,793 kg (about 26,000 lb). Final scope details are expected to be set out in regulation, so verify against the published rules once they are released.
Does Bill M217 require driver-facing cameras inside the cab?
No. The bill covers outward-facing cameras only. Driver-facing in-cab cameras were deliberately left out to address privacy concerns raised during committee review.
How does B.C. privacy law affect dash cam footage?
Footage that identifies people is personal information. Private-sector carriers operating in B.C. are generally subject to the Personal Information Protection Act (PIPA), which governs how you collect, use, retain, and disclose that footage, so build a written retention and access policy.
What happens if my camera fails on the road?
The specific penalties are still being finalized in regulation. The safest practice is to log the fault, document your attempt to repair it, and follow whatever remediation process CVSE publishes — the same way you would handle any equipment defect discovered on a trip.
Bottom Line
Bill M217 makes B.C. the first province to mandate outward-facing dash cams on heavy commercial trucks, and it applies by the road, not the plate — so Canadian and US carriers alike need in-scope units compliant six months after Royal Assent. The winning move is to scope your covered units now, verify equipment against the reported 1080p / 72-hour standard, add a camera check to your pre-trip, put a PIPA-aware footage policy and clear lease responsibilities in writing, and confirm the final numbers against CVSE regulations when they publish. Do it in one system and B.C. becomes a checklist item, not a fire drill.
TorqueAI keeps multi-jurisdiction compliance — equipment records, pre-trips, and renewal dates — in one place so a new rule like Bill M217 is a line item, not a scramble. Book a demo →