Ya, I was thinking on an industrial level. A privately owned bottle probably doesn't require it. I mean, who that owns a fire extinguisher for their home gets it inspected annually, or is even required to?

If you were discharging it and getting it refill every 6 months. What's a visual anyways, screwing off the valve and looking inside, screwing the valve back on, 30 bucks?

OK so the consensus is this guy is a scam artist.

It is the fire extinguisher shop by the way and the only place in town I know of that can fill CO2 tanks.

I will look into a beverage distributor or else going to Terrace to fill the tank.

It may be a high price but the law in B.C. is that all pressurized refillable containers will have to go through an inspection. This includes propane cylinders and co2 etc, it also includes compressor tanks. The time frame for these tests is determined by the ""Yuk"" government. I dont know if it is a $30.00 fee for your container, try phoning worksafe B.C for the link to the site that monitors this...I agree that most of it is crap, but I have also seen what a pressurized cylinder can do when it lets go....

Not sure what this is in reference to. The fire extinguisher? I think a refill would basically take care of a fire extinguisher annual. I think most home extinguishers just sit there, and sit there, and sit there.....Hopefully it would work when needed.

I believe so. For SCBAs anyway. But if I could beat the fire extinguisher thing to death a bit more....I'm pretty sure it's not done for those in that manner. At work we are required to have our extinguishers inspected annually. The contractor does this on site. They are not screwing any tops off and looking inside. They just basically give the exterior a once over...check the gauge (or weight in the case of CO2 ext)...and attach a new tag. I've witnessed it. It's nothing special. We basically do the same thing once a month as part of our routine checks.

This is true, but only on cylinders that over a specific psi. Hence, a lot of chemical fire extinguishers don't require a vis, but CO2 does.
Considering where this guy is, you might be able to find a local scuba shop, or anyone that can legally do a vis. Any one that fills high pressure tanks will usually have someone on site that can do it. The guy that is changing 30 bucks is probably not even doing it, but rather sending it off to one of the other gas company. I know the fire departments hand off the vis(and hydro's) to dive shops, or welding suppliers all the time. The guy doing the vis doesn't have to be the same guy to fill it.

And a hydro test shouldn't be above about $30. They just overfill the tank, and measure how much it expands.