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August 20, 2026Puffin Services

What a Background Check Costs in BC — and What It Actually Covers

"Background checked" covers different checks with different scope. Why the police vulnerable sector check is the one that matters for caregivers, what sets its cost and wait, and what to ask.

"Background checked" is one phrase covering several different checks with meaningfully different scope. Worth pulling apart, because the differences decide what the check is actually worth.

There are no prices in this post, on purpose. Fees are set by each police service and change. Check the current fee with the police service or RCMP detachment that will run the check.

The two things people mean

A police vulnerable sector check. Issued by the police service or RCMP detachment where the person lives, for a role working with children or vulnerable adults. It is the one designed for this purpose: as well as convictions, it searches for record suspensions for certain sexual offences, which other checks do not show.

A general criminal record check. From a police service, or a name-based check bought through a private screening company. Often quicker to arrange, but not built around the question a vulnerable sector check answers — and a private company cannot run a vulnerable sector check at all. Only police services can.

The check that matters is not necessarily the faster or the more expensive one. That is worth stating plainly.

What sets the cost and the wait

  • Each police service sets its own fee, so the same check costs different amounts in different cities.
  • Volunteer roles are often free with a letter from the organisation.
  • Fingerprints add a federal fee and time. When a person's date of birth and sex match a record in the national database, fingerprints are taken to confirm identity. It happens to people with no record at all.
  • Around the fee sits the process: identification, the letter describing the role, and the wait before someone can start.

    • Required, or optional — the part that changes the outcome

    What decides whether "every caregiver is checked" is true is not the fee. It is whether the check is required.

    When it is optional, it gets skipped under pressure. A family weighing the wait on top of an urgent booking may decide the reference call was enough; a listing may show a check on some profiles and not on others.

    When it is a condition of working, applied to everyone before a first shift, nobody decides case by case whether this particular caregiver is worth checking — and a caregiver needed at short notice is not the exception.

    The questions to ask

    Not "are your caregivers background checked" — everyone says yes.

  • Which check? A police vulnerable sector check, or a general criminal record check?
  • Is it required before a first shift, for every caregiver?
  • When was it issued, and by which police service?
  • Is the family billed for it?
  • What happens if something comes back?

    • Where Puffin sits

    Every Puffin caregiver has a clear police vulnerable sector check before their first shift — requested for Puffin at their local police or RCMP detachment, or one they already hold from a previous role working with children. It is a condition of working, not an option, and a family is never billed for it.

    There is more on what the check covers in what a vulnerable sector check is, and on the rest of the process in how Puffin vets every caregiver.

    What is a vulnerable sector check? →How Puffin vets every caregiver →

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