Why it helps to understand the system first

Welcome to Part Seven. The core chapters of this book (Chapters 1 to 20) explain the practical work of opening and running a small restaurant, café or cloud kitchen. They are written for readers in many countries, so they do not name laws, offices or fees. Part Seven does. It explains the rules in Canada, which office deals with each one, what it usually costs, and how to check the position for your own address. All amounts in Part Seven are in Canadian dollars.

Many people expect a country to have one rule book for restaurants. Canada does not. The national government deals with some subjects, such as income tax and the federal sales tax. But most of the rules that shape a restaurant’s daily life, such as food premises inspections, staff pay and holidays, alcohol, workplace injury insurance and commercial leases, are made by each province or territory. And the question “May I open a restaurant in this building?” is usually answered by the municipality (the local council of a city or town).

New owners who do not understand this often lose time and money: they sign a lease before checking that the building may be used as a restaurant, or they follow a rule that applies only in another province. You do not need to learn every law. You need a clear picture of the levels of government, a rough idea of which level handles which subject, and a simple method for finding your own offices. With these you can ask the right people the right questions in the right order. That is a sure and secure path.

The three levels of government

Canada is a federal country. Power is shared between the national government (the federal government) and the governments of the ten provinces and three territories, the large regions into which Canada is divided, such as Ontario, Quebec or Yukon. Each has its own government that makes its own laws on many subjects. This book says “province or territory” where it means either.

Below them are the municipalities: cities, towns, villages and other local councils. Montréal is also divided into boroughs, and some permits for a restaurant there are issued by the borough, not the city as a whole.

One more term matters greatly to a food business. A public health unit is the local office that inspects food premises. Its name and shape differ by province. In Ontario there are about 29 public health units, each covering a city or region (Toronto Public Health is one). In British Columbia the job is done by regional health authorities, such as Fraser Health or Vancouver Coastal Health. In Alberta it is done by Alberta Health Services (AHS), through its Environmental Public Health service. In Quebec, food permits are issued by the provincial government’s food department, the Ministère de l’Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l’Alimentation (MAPAQ), and on the island of Montréal the City of Montréal carries out the inspections on MAPAQ’s behalf.

What the federal government handles

For a small restaurant, the federal government matters mainly for tax and a few national rules:

• Tax. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) collects income tax, the federal Goods and Services Tax (GST) and, in five provinces, the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), which combines the federal and provincial sales taxes into one. It also collects the amounts employers deduct from pay for the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), Employment Insurance (EI) and income tax. Quebec is an exception for several of these, as explained below. Chapter C-5 explains the taxes.
• Your Business Number (BN), the CRA’s number for your business, and federal incorporation through Corporations Canada, an alternative to forming a company under provincial law (Chapter C-2).
• Food law that applies everywhere. The federal Food and Drugs Act applies to all food sold in Canada, and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Health Canada set national rules such as labelling of prepackaged food. A restaurant selling directly to its own customers needs no federal food licence (Chapter C-3).
• Some staff matters, such as the Record of Employment (ROE), a form you issue when an employee stops working (Chapter C-6).

Note that the federal minimum wage ($18.15 an hour from 1 April 2026) applies only to federally regulated businesses such as banks and airlines. Restaurants are not on the federal list: they follow the employment standards of the province or territory where their staff work (Chapter C-6).

What the provinces and territories handle

Most of the rules that touch a restaurant are provincial or territorial, each with its own law, body and fees: food premises and food handler training; alcohol licences; employment standards (minimum wage, hours, holidays, tips); workers’ compensation, the compulsory insurance that pays benefits to workers injured at work; commercial leases; provincial sales tax, where a province has one; and registering a business name or forming a provincial company.

What municipalities handle

Your municipality usually controls zoning (the local rules that say what each piece of land or building may be used for, such as shops, homes or restaurants), building permits, approval when a building’s use changes, business licences in many cities, signs and patios, local fire inspections and drainage rules such as the duty to fit a grease interceptor (a trap that stops fat from kitchen sinks entering the sewer). Municipalities also set property tax, which commercial landlords often pass on to tenants (Chapter C-7).

Which level usually handles what

The table below is a starting map, not a rule. The split differs between provinces, and the examples are not complete: there are ten provinces, three territories and many hundreds of municipalities.

Subject	Level that usually handles it	Examples of how it differs	Chapter
Choosing and registering your business structure	Provincial (name registration, provincial companies) or federal (federal companies)	Fees and rules differ; in British Columbia a sole proprietor trading under their own name need not register.	C-2
Business Number and federal taxes	Federal: the CRA	In Quebec, Revenu Québec (the Quebec tax authority) handles GST registration and returns for most businesses, together with the Quebec Sales Tax (QST).	C-2, C-5
Food premises permit and inspections	Provincial law, applied by a local public health unit or regional health authority	Ontario: you notify your public health unit before opening. British Columbia: a health operating permit from your regional health authority. Quebec: a permit from MAPAQ after municipal approval. Alberta: a Food Handling Permit from AHS.	C-3
Alcohol	Provincial liquor regulator, often with municipal sign-off	Each province has its own licence names, fees and server training. In Ontario the liquor regulator needs sign-off from the municipality and from the building, fire and health authorities.	C-4
Zoning, building permits, change of use, signs, patios	Municipal	Toronto requires a Zoning Review for Business Licence. In Calgary, changing a shop into a restaurant can need a development permit and a building permit.	C-4, C-7
Municipal business licence	Municipal (where the municipality has one)	Toronto, Vancouver and Calgary issue restaurant business licences. Montréal has no general business licence for restaurants, but you need an occupancy permit from your borough.	C-4
Payroll deductions	Federal (CPP, EI, income tax), except Quebec	Quebec employers deduct Quebec Pension Plan (QPP) contributions instead of CPP, also deduct Quebec Parental Insurance Plan (QPIP) premiums, and send the Quebec amounts to Revenu Québec.	C-5, C-6
Commercial leases	Provincial law	Ontario has the Commercial Tenancies Act, British Columbia the Commercial Tenancy Act, and in Quebec leases fall under the Civil Code of Québec.	C-7
Delivery app fees	Provincial (only some provinces act)	British Columbia caps the fee that delivery apps serving 500 or more restaurants charge for core delivery services at 20% of the order value, excluding tax and tip.	C-10

Quebec runs its own system for several subjects

In Quebec, expect more differences. Revenu Québec administers the Quebec Sales Tax and, for most businesses there, the GST as well, so you register and file with Revenu Québec rather than the CRA. Quebec also collects its own corporate income tax, runs its own pension and parental insurance plans, and has rules on the use of French on signs, products and business documents (Chapter C-4). Most restaurants in Quebec must also use a certified sales recording system that sends transaction data to Revenu Québec (Chapter C-5). Alberta also collects its own corporate income tax.

The main bodies in four example provinces

Part Seven uses Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec and Alberta as its main examples, with Toronto, Vancouver, Montréal and Calgary as example cities. There is no “standard” province in this book. If you are opening elsewhere, the table still shows you the kind of body to look for.

Subject	Ontario	British Columbia	Quebec	Alberta
Registering a business name or company	Ontario Business Registry (online), with ServiceOntario	BC Registries and Online Services	Registraire des entreprises du Québec (REQ), Quebec’s business register	Alberta Corporate Registry, through private registry agents
Food premises and inspections	Your local public health unit (for example Toronto Public Health)	Your regional health authority (for example Fraser Health)	MAPAQ; in Montréal the City inspects on MAPAQ’s behalf	Alberta Health Services, Environmental Public Health
Alcohol	Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO)	Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch (LCRB)	Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ), Quebec’s alcohol, racing and gaming regulator	Alberta Gaming, Liquor and Cannabis (AGLC)
Employment standards law	Employment Standards Act, 2000	Employment Standards Act	Act respecting labour standards, administered by the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail (CNESST), Quebec’s labour standards and workplace safety body	Employment Standards Code
Workers’ compensation	Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB)	WorkSafeBC	CNESST	WCB-Alberta
Sales tax on restaurant meals	13% HST, collected for the CRA	5% GST (CRA); provincial sales tax applies to alcohol and soda, not to meals	5% GST and 9.975% QST, both through Revenu Québec	5% GST (CRA); no provincial sales tax
Provincial corporate income tax collected by	The CRA	The CRA	Revenu Québec	The Alberta government
Free local business help	Ontario Small Business Advisory Centres	The province’s “Starting a restaurant in BC” pages; BC Registries helpdesk	Revenu Québec’s “Démarrer une entreprise” (start a business) service	Business Link Alberta; AHS food business help line
Example city: who does what	Toronto: Toronto Building (zoning and permits), Municipal Licensing and Standards (business licence), Toronto Public Health (inspections)	Vancouver: the City reviews the location and issues the business licence; Vancouver Coastal Health inspects and reviews food businesses as part of the licence application	Montréal: your borough issues the occupancy permit; the City inspects food premises	Calgary: the City issues development permits, building permits and the business licence; the Fire Prevention Bureau inspects; AHS inspects food handling

Names change. Ontario’s free small business centres, formerly Small Business Enterprise Centres, are now Ontario Small Business Advisory Centres, and several Ontario public health units have merged recently, so confirm the current name and boundary of yours.

The usual order of steps

The order matters, because many approvals depend on earlier ones. For example, in Quebec the municipality must approve your premises before MAPAQ issues a food permit; in Montréal a restaurant must have its occupancy permit before it applies for an alcohol permit; and in Calgary the AGLC will not issue a liquor licence until the City has given land use approval. The sequence below is the order in which a new owner usually meets each office. Your own order may differ, and several steps overlap.

1. Get free advice and choose a structure. Talk to a small business centre (section C-1.5) and an accountant, choose a structure and register it (Chapter C-2).
2. Before you sign a lease, check the premises with the municipality: is a restaurant allowed under the zoning, and will a change of use, development permit or building permit be needed? In Toronto this check is a Zoning Review for Business Licence (Chapters C-4 and C-7).
3. Get your floor plans approved by the health authority before you build. In Alberta, AHS asks for plans at least six weeks before construction starts. In British Columbia an Environmental Health Officer must approve them in writing first, and review can take from 3 to 90 days (Chapter C-3).
4. Get building permits and carry out the work, with building and fire inspections (Chapter C-4).
5. Register for tax: Business Number, and GST/HST (in Quebec, GST and QST) when required or earlier by choice (Chapters C-2 and C-5).
6. Apply for your municipal licence or permit and your food permit, complete food handler training and pass the pre-opening health inspection (Chapters C-3 and C-4).
7. Apply for an alcohol licence, if you need one, once the approvals it depends on are in place (Chapter C-4).
8. Before your first employee starts, open a payroll account, register with the workers’ compensation board and learn your province’s employment standards. In Ontario, for example, restaurants must register with the WSIB within 10 calendar days of hiring their first employee (Chapter C-6).

Many steps take weeks. For example, the Quebec food permit takes two to six weeks, a Montréal occupancy permit six to eight weeks in one borough, and a discretionary development permit in Calgary 10 to 12 weeks. Chapter C-12 brings all the steps together with timings.

Free help

Free information and advice are available at every level. Use them early, before you sign anything.

Federal tools

• BizPaL (bizpal.ca) is a free online service run jointly by federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments. You enter your location and type of business, and it lists permits and licences you may need. All thirteen provinces and territories take part, but municipal coverage varies, so treat its list as a starting point.
• The “Starting a business” page on canada.ca links to federal incorporation, Business Number registration and other federal services.
• The “Supports for business” page of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) includes the Business Benefits Finder, which suggests funding and support programmes after you answer a few questions.

Provincial help: examples

• Ontario: Ontario Small Business Advisory Centres offer free consultations, business plan reviews, referrals to lawyers and accountants, workshops, and guidance on licences and permits. The ServiceOntario Contact Centre (416-314-8880 or 1-800-361-3223) answers questions about business registration. The Law Society Referral Service offers a free consultation of up to 30 minutes with a lawyer.
• British Columbia: the “Starting a restaurant in BC” section on gov.bc.ca covers permits and licences. The BC Registries helpdesk (1-877-526-1526) helps with registration.
• Quebec: Revenu Québec’s “Démarrer une entreprise” service guides you through registering with several Quebec government departments at the same time.
• Alberta: Business Link Alberta, a government-funded non-profit organisation, gives free one-to-one guidance to new small businesses. Alberta Health Services runs a food business help line (1-833-476-4743) and publishes a step-by-step guide, “Starting a Food Business”.

There are also lenders and support organisations for new businesses, such as the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), Futurpreneur Canada and the Community Futures network. Chapter C-9 explains what they offer.

Finding the rules where you are

Because the rules depend on your exact address, the most useful skill in Part Seven is knowing how to find your own. Here is a method that works in any province or territory.

Step 1: Confirm which governments cover your address

Write down your province or territory, your municipality (and, in a city such as Montréal, your borough), and your public health unit or health authority. Two official finders help:

• Ontario: the province’s Public Health Locator shows which unit covers you.
• British Columbia: the government’s map of regional health authorities shows which authority covers you. Permit names and fees vary between authorities.

Step 2: Use BizPaL, then go to the source

Enter your location and business type in BizPaL to get a first list. Then visit the website of each office it names, and search your municipality’s website for terms such as “business licence restaurant”, “zoning review”, “change of use”, “occupancy permit” and “patio permit”. Search your health authority’s website for “food premises”, “plan review” or “starting a food business”.

Step 3: Make a list of the offices to contact

Use the rows of Worksheet C-1.1 as your list. For most restaurants it includes the municipal zoning, building, fire and licensing offices; the public health unit or health authority; the provincial business registry; the CRA (and in Quebec, Revenu Québec); any provincial sales tax office; the liquor regulator if you will serve alcohol; and the employment standards office and workers’ compensation board once you plan to employ staff.

Step 4: Ask good questions

When you contact each office, have your address and a short description of your business ready (for example, “a 40-seat restaurant serving beer and wine” or “a delivery-only kitchen with no customers on site”). Then ask:

• What permits, licences, registrations or notices do I need from you for this business at this address?
• What must I send you, and is there a checklist online?
• Must you approve my plans before building work starts?
• How long does approval usually take at the moment?
• What are the fees, and when are renewals due?
• Which inspections happen before I open, and how do I book them?
• Which other offices must sign off before you can approve me, or after you do?

Ask for answers in writing, or send a short email confirming what you were told, and keep it with Worksheet C-1.1.

Duties that apply to almost every business

Some duties apply to almost every business in Canada, whatever it sells:

• Register your business where your province requires it, and pay tax on your profits in the way your structure requires (Chapter C-2).
• Charge sales tax. Most businesses must register for GST/HST once their taxable sales pass $30,000 in a single calendar quarter or over four calendar quarters in a row. Tax you collect is not your money; you hold it for the government (Chapter C-5).
• Keep records. The CRA generally requires you to keep records and supporting documents for six years from the end of the last tax year they relate to (Chapter C-5).
• Follow employer rules from the day you hire: ask for each new employee’s Social Insurance Number (SIN) within three days of the start of work, make payroll deductions, issue T4 slips (the yearly statement of pay and deductions) and Records of Employment, and register with your workers’ compensation board (Chapter C-6).
• Serve customers accessibly. In Ontario, for example, every business that serves the public must follow the customer service standard under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) (Chapter C-4).
• In Quebec, do business in French. Serving customers in French is compulsory, and there are rules on French in signs and commercial documents (Chapter C-4).
• Insure your business. Landlords, lenders and some permits ask for it; Toronto, for example, requires $2,000,000 of general liability insurance for a curb lane café (a patio built in the street next to the kerb) (Chapters C-4 and C-8).

How Part Seven is arranged

Part Seven has twelve chapters. The core tells you how to do something well; Part Seven tells you what the law in Canada requires and how to check your own position.

Chapter	What it covers	Read it with
C-1 How the Rules Work in Canada	The levels of government, the main bodies, the order of steps, free help, finding your local rules	Chapter 1
C-2 Your Business Structure	Sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation; registering; Business Number; federal or provincial incorporation; registers of significant control; personal liability	Chapters 2 and 4
C-3 Food Safety Permits and Inspections	Food premises permits and notices, plan review, inspections, food handler training, allergens and labelling	Chapters 3, 9 and 12
C-4 Other Licences and Permits	Alcohol, municipal business licences, zoning and building, fire, grease, patios, music, French-language rules in Quebec, smoking, accessibility, trademarks	Chapters 5, 8, 10 and 15
C-5 GST/HST and Other Taxes	GST/HST and provincial sales taxes on meals, input tax credits, payroll deductions, employer health taxes, income tax, records	Chapters 7, 16 and 17
C-6 Employing Staff	Minimum wages, tips, hours, holidays, hiring paperwork, workers’ compensation, ending employment	Chapter 13
C-7 Premises and Leases	Commercial leases under provincial law, lease terms, zoning checks, accessibility of premises	Chapter 5
C-8 Typical Costs in Canada	Real cost levels for energy, licences, insurance and wages to compare with your own quotes	Chapters 16 and 17
C-9 Funding	Government-backed loans, BDC, Futurpreneur, Community Futures, regional programmes	Chapter 16
C-10 Delivery Apps and Payments	Delivery app fees, provincial fee caps, card payments and the card industry code of conduct	Chapters 7 and 15
C-11 Terms and Money	A glossary of the Canadian terms used in Part Seven	Any chapter
C-12 The Canada Master Checklist and Timeline	Every step in order, with timings	Chapter 19

How each chapter is written

Every chapter gives the federal rules; how provinces, territories and municipalities differ, with labelled examples that are never a complete list; and how to find the rules where you are. So if your province or city is not among the examples, the chapter still tells you what to look for.

Read a core chapter first; where it says the rules depend on your country, it sends you here. Then note each legal step and office from the matching Part Seven chapter, put it into your plan with time for approvals, and check the official pages listed at the end of the chapter before you act.

How to keep up to date

Rules change often, at every level. In the eighteen months before this chapter was checked, for example: Nova Scotia’s HST rate fell from 15% to 14% on 1 April 2025; the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) became the only wholesaler of alcohol to Ontario licensees from 1 April 2026; British Columbia raised its liquor licence renewal fees from 1 May 2026; and Ontario’s general minimum wage rose to $17.95 an hour on 1 October 2026. More changes are already announced: Prince Edward Island’s minimum wage is due to rise again on 1 April 2027, and federal trademark fees are due to rise by 1.7% on 1 January 2027. Announced changes can themselves be changed before they take effect. These habits will keep you on a sure and secure path:

• Use official pages, and check the date on them. Blogs and forums are often out of date or written for another province.
• Watch the change dates. Check the payroll figures (CPP, EI, QPP, QPIP) at the start of each calendar year. In 2026, minimum wages changed on 1 May in Quebec, 1 June in British Columbia and 1 October in Ontario.
• Ask your accountant at least once a year: “Has anything changed that affects my business?”
• Review once a year. Chapter 20 suggests a yearly review of your business. Add a check of your registrations, permits, renewal dates and insurance, and update Worksheet C-1.1.