Ryan,
As you know by being a certified welder yourself, the Canadian Welding Bereau does not set the welding standards, they are a quality assurance verification system.
They ensure that the welding performed conforms to the various CSA standards in place developed over time that ensure public safety for structural applications of many types.
The CSA standards are a requirment of the Canadian building code and written into designs by engineers engaged in any building project of substance.
The CWB provide services to the welding industry to achieve this, including training, qualifying welding operators and supervisors and assisting companies in developing and having welding procedures in place for the type of work they undertake.
For this service they charge a fee.
I have nothing but praise for the inspectors that came and did the audits, witness the welder testing and help us to make sure each welding operator employed performed a quality weld. The passed on their impressive wealth of knowledge and experience they were great people and we respected them, they were not "police"
This enabled us to undertake work that others were not qualified to do and put us on an elevated playing field separating us from the guys on the fringes who bought a welding machine and then called themselves a welding contractor.
It was costly but a very good thing for my business, we had an outstanding reputation for quality workmanship and we were always in demand beyond our capacity.
