The CPD nominee: who it should be and what happens if they leave

Every BC general contractor licence names one CPD nominee: the individual who personally earns the licence’s 20 CPD points each term. The nominee should be someone with a real, ongoing role in the building business who is likely to stay, because the points are tied to the person, carry-over is lost if the nominee changes, and a new nominee has to reach 20 points before the next renewal. If the nominee leaves, you name a replacement in the LRB portal and start their points immediately.

What the nominee does

BC Housing’s CPD requirement is a requirement on the licensee, but a company cannot sit in a course. The nominee is the person who does. They complete the training, their name goes on the certificates, and their points are reported against the licence. The nominee is also the person an audit will expect to see on every record. One licence, one nominee, 20 points a term. The rules are on BC Housing’s CPD page.

Who it should be

Three tests, in order.

1. Involved in the building. The point of CPD is to keep the person responsible for the homes current on code, contracts, warranty and site practice. Pick the person who makes those calls: the owner-builder, the managing director, the general manager who runs the sites. An accountant or a silent partner satisfies the paperwork and misses the purpose.
2. Likely to stay. Carry-over only survives if the nominee stays the same, and a nominee change mid-term resets the clock for the new person. A long-tenured owner is a safer nominee than a project manager who might be at another firm next spring.
3. Willing to do the hours. Twenty hours a year is not much, but it is twenty hours that person has to actually spend. If the owner will never sit through it and the site manager will, name the site manager and accept the retention risk.

For a sole proprietor or a one-person company, the answer is you. For a family company, it is usually the active generation, not the founder who has stepped back.

What changes when the nominee changes

A nominee change is reported to BC Housing through the LRB portal, and it has three effects:

• Carry-over is lost. Points the old nominee banked above 20 do not transfer. See the carry-over rules.
• The new nominee needs 20 points before renewal. Points the old nominee earned belong to them; the licence still has to show the requirement met by the person who holds the role at renewal. Treat the remainder of the term as the new nominee’s deadline, however short.
• Records split. Keep the old nominee’s certificates for the three-year retention period; they support points already reported. Start a new folder for the new nominee.

If you have a choice about timing, change the nominee at the start of a term, not the end.

If the nominee leaves suddenly

1. Name the replacement in the LRB portal and update directors and officers if those changed too.
2. Check how many days are left in the term. That is the window for the new nominee’s 20 points.
3. Buy on-demand training that covers the full 20 so the deadline is not dependent on anyone else’s schedule. The CPD Pass is 26 points and can be finished in a few evenings.
4. Report each course as it is completed. See how to report CPD in the LRB portal.
5. Renew inside the 60-day window with the points showing. There is no grace period.

Builders with 60 days left and a fresh nominee are the ones for whom live webinar schedules do not work. Two sessions a week at two points each does not reach 20 before expiry.

Mistakes that cost points

• Training the wrong person. The owner takes the courses but the licence names the GM. Those certificates do not count.
• Forgetting to update the nominee after a partner leaves, then reporting points in the departed partner’s name.
• Assuming carry-over transfers. It does not.
• Sharing a login. Courses must be completed by the nominee personally. A provider that tracks seat time will show who was watching; an audit can ask.
• Naming a nominee with no role, to get an easy 20 points from someone who has time. It meets the letter of the rule badly and the purpose not at all.

Companies with several licences

Groups that hold more than one general contractor licence (separate companies per project, for example) name a nominee for each licence. The same individual may hold the role on related licences, but the points have to be earned for each term of each licence; ask BC Housing how it treats one person’s training across multiple licences before you assume one course covers all of them. Builder Pass company plans give each nominee their own seat and records; see pricing.

The practical rule

Name the person who runs the building and is going to be there next year. Put their 20 points on the calendar in month one. Keep their certificates in a folder by term. If they leave, name the replacement the same week and buy them the full 20 on demand. The pass covers it: get my 20 points.