I found out first hand how strict British Columbia is back in 1991 when I driven a rented 26 foot U-hault truck haulin my Mom's household goods from California and relocating her to Alaska with me....
Upon receiving the truck, I was only briefed on the requirement commuting thru Canada as they recognize the 26 foot truck as a commercial vehicle and therefore subjected to mandatory stops at every weigh station upon my route within Canada, in comparison not having to stop at any weigh station within the US....
So after entering Canada at the Huntington Border Station (Abbortsford) crossing into BC, I driven to Hope upon my first weigh station over the scales as they waived me thru, second weigh station at Williams Lake - same result as they waived me thru, then the potential nightmare hit at the Quesnal Weigh Station as this officer changed the green light to red as he instructed me to step out of the vehicle and asked me what I was haulin (household goods) and then asked me where my permit was....
I was like -permit ? ...the rig is well under 20 percent of the max GVWR I told the officer as in my mind I thought he was talking about some overweight permit....
This officer took the comment as being sarcastic as he demanded for my license, insurance and registration of the truck - then asked me where I first entered BC as I told him....
Then he explained to me how serious in nature these major offenses were upon eluding two weigh stations while on the road without a valid permit issued to haul personal belongings as I told him excuse me for interrupting but I was waived thru both weigh stations and was only informed to stop at the weigh stations within Canada according to the company that owns this rental, as they did not inform me of obtaining any permit to haul household goods with either.
The officer didn't want to hear none of that, while informing me that "if" you checked in the first weigh station at Hope like you claimed, the department there would have informed you to obtain a permit and display it on your windshield lower corner as required so therefore you will be cited for a $1500 fine for non compliance, as you still need to obtain a valid permit that totals $123 according to the personal belongings weight total you are hauling.
I asked him if I can speak to a supervisor as I apologize to him for not knowing about any requirement to have a permit issued to me, however I did not elude any weigh station like you claim because I would definitely have a permit if I had known about it as those other weigh stations had not informed me anything as they only signaled me to proceed thru.
Ten minutes later a supervisor in charge arrives as I plea about my case as simply not knowing about BC's permit requirement as I am on emergency leave and relocating my Mom to Alaska with me as she has some health issues (as I turn around seeing her smoke a cigarette which didn't go to well with the medical issue mentioning), but the supervisor had a heart and told the officer that inspected me not to cite but to issue the valid permit.
Before I obtained the permit, the officer checked all safety equipment and lighting, even checked every single marker light too just to make sure the truck was in compliance.
The permit was issued to me after another 30 minutes, and was also informed the permit was only valid for 7 days.
Seems to me BC has no waivers for out of province registered vehicles when it comes to vehicle enforcement, especially the incident that I went thru.
A few years ago I was told a story while in Canada that one day the Dawson Creek BC area had some new test phase checkpoint setup to where they were stopping larger private vehicles, namely light duty trucks with trailers and RV's in general as they had portable scales randomly checking any suspected overweight vehicles, as the first day alone they reported 97 percent of the vehicles they chosen for secondary inspection were not in weight compliance.
Since then, I also heard a couple stories of checkpoints where they stopped both private and commercial vehicles checking registration, insurance, and any other documents they ask for - just like all of Sue's posted messages to a tee related to this topic, and the past year or so reading other posts on RV.Net confirming BC's strict vehicle enforcement on more frequent random mandatory checkpoints for all vehicles subjected to inspection and compliance.
In the past three years of 2010, 2011, and 2012 I have not personally witnessed any random vehicle checkpoints upon my travels in BC.
So yeah, BC does not play when it comes to vehicle enforcement.
1975 Ford F250 2WD Ranger XLT (Owned June 2013)
460 V8- C6 Trans- 3.73:1 (196K Total Mi)
2000 Fleetwood Angler 8ft Cabover
Air Lift 1000 (Front)
Hellwig 3500 lb Helper Springs (rear)
Hellwig Front and Rear Sway Bars
Goodyear G971 LT Series (siped)