Strathcona Regional District

Starting a food business in Campbell River

What City of Campbell River adds to the Island Health and provincial rules: its business licence, home-based businesses, and markets and events.

A change is coming

  • Campbell River sewer rates rise — takes effect 1 January 2027. What changes
Parts of this page rest on documents that don’t spell the answer out. Confirm with City of Campbell River before you rely on it.

Business licence

All businesses operating in Campbell River need a valid business licence, home-based ones included, and operating without one can bring fines of up to $200 a day. Licences renew on February 28, and restaurants also need permits from Island Health.

Fee: "$150 per year"; seasonal (six-month) licences "$75 per season"

Sources

Running it from home

Allowed, with conditions

Campbell River permits home-based businesses in all residential zones, with no food-specific rule other than a ban on cannabis operations, edibles included. The business must stay inside the house (accessory buildings only in rural zones) and may sell only catalogue sales or products made on the premises.

  • Inside the principal dwelling, except the commercial growing and sale of fruit, vegetables or plants; accessory buildings only in rural zones (s. 4.9(a), (j)).
  • No retail sales except catalogue sales or products produced on the premises (s. 4.9(f)).
  • No noise, vibration, dust, smoke, odour, heat or traffic beyond what a dwelling normally produces; no outdoor storage or display (s. 4.9(d)–(e)).
  • At most 40% of the dwelling’s floor area, up to 80 m² (861 ft²) (s. 4.9(g)).
  • No more than one employee who does not live there (s. 4.9(h)).
  • One unlit sign of up to 0.4 m² (s. 4.9(c)).
  • No cannabis operations, including edible cannabis products (s. 4.9(k)).
Zoning decides whether a business can run from your home; Island Health decides what food can come from a home kitchen. What you can make at home to sell

Sources

Markets and events

For large events the organizer books through the City and buys a $150-a-day licence that covers participating vendors, and at City-sponsored events individual vendors need no separate licence. Seasonal licences ($75 a season) are meant for part-year businesses such as farm stands. Food trucks need a licence and $3,000,000 insurance — unless they already hold a primary food truck licence and an Inter-Community food truck licence from another participating municipality — and at a booked City site the approved booking agreement serves as the licence. City site bookings cost $35 an operating day, waived for holders of a Campbell River primary licence.

Sources

Mobile businesses

Campbell River’s page offers a Central Island Inter-Community licence to mobile businesses only, valid in Courtenay, Duncan, Nanaimo, Parksville, Port Alberni, North Cowichan, Lantzville, Comox, Lake Cowichan, Ladysmith, Qualicum Beach and Cumberland. Its food truck page accepts a primary food truck licence plus an "Inter-Community Food Truck Licence" from another participating municipality — which conflicts with the $170 fee and food-truck exclusion in the 2025–2026 bylaws adopted by Duncan and Sidney; which applies is not confirmed.

Fee: "The annual fee for an ICBL is $150" (City web page)

Sources

Notes on the sources (2)
  • The business licence bylaw itself was not read; the fees ($150, seasonal $75, ICBL $150) come from the City’s web page.
  • No Campbell River intermunicipal licence separate from the Inter-Community licence was found.

Other municipalities · Farmers’ markets

Last checked 26 September 2026. We check this guide regularly against Island Health, provincial and municipal sources, but regulations and laws change often and we can’t guarantee it is complete or current. Confirm with Island Health and your municipality before you apply, build or sell.

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