Starting a food business in Nanaimo

Opening a shop, café, kitchen or truck in Nanaimo

Business licence

$165 a year — one rate for most businesses, food included; prorated by quarter.

Applying for the licence

Online form. Zoning, Building Code, Fire Code and health approvals may be needed before it’s issued, and if you need a building permit the licence isn’t processed until that permit is complete.

Checking zoning

NanaimoMap opens on the zoning layer; Current Planning staff will help confirm it.

Building permit

$105 plus $10 per $1,000 up to $100,000, then $7 per $1,000. Island Health–stamped plans go in with the application, and a restaurant for more than 30 people usually needs an architect. The City targets 8 weeks for a tenant improvement and says it isn’t meeting its targets.

Fire inspection

Depending on the business, Fire Code approval may be needed before the licence is issued. Regular inspections are free; a special inspection or a re-inspection costs $100.

Food truck licence

$165 on private property; $365 for parks or streets.

Food truck fire inspection

Required, as part of the licence, for enclosed units with propane or wood-fired appliances or grease-laden cooking; re-inspected only when the setup changes. Suppression and hoods are serviced every six months.

Where to ask: Fire & Loss Prevention, 250-753-7311

Business licence

Businesses in Nanaimo — including non-profits operating more than 12 days a year — need either a City licence or another Vancouver Island municipality’s licence with the Inter-community add-on. Licences, except special-event and temporary ones, expire every December 31, and the first year is pro-rated except for temporary, special-event and mobile food vending licences.

Home-based fee: "All other businesses $165.00" (the fee table has no separate home-based line); non-profits $50.00

Running it from home

A home-based business is allowed in any dwelling unit or secondary suite in Nanaimo, whatever the zone, and there is no named ban on food production, catering or processing. Restaurants are prohibited — and selling ready-to-eat meals for pickup likely counts as one — and you may sell only items the business makes. Limits on floor area, customer visits and staff depend on the type of home and the lot size.

• At least one resident must hold the business licence (s. 6.20.2).
• Type 1 — any unit in a building of two or more units, a secondary suite, mobile or modular home, RV, float home, or a house on a lot under 370 m²: 42 m² or 50% of the unit, whichever is less; no customer or client vehicle trips; no non-resident employees on site.
• Type 2 — a house on a lot of 370 m² to under 2,020 m²: 100 m² or 50%, whichever is less; 8 return trips a day; 1 non-resident employee.
• Type 3 — a lot of 2,020 m² or more: 200 m² or 50%; 12 return trips a day; 2 non-resident employees.
• No restaurant, and no retail sale of items other than those the business makes (s. 6.20.5).
• Customer trips only between 7am and 9pm (s. 6.20.6).
• No odours, noise, smoke or other emissions across a lot line or between units (s. 6.20.8).
• The business and its storage wholly inside the dwelling, suite, RV or an accessory building; an accessory building only where the main use is a single residential dwelling (ss. 6.20.9–6.20.10).
• A tenant expecting customers at the home includes the owner’s written permission with the application.

Markets and events

At a special event (five days or fewer), vendors need no licence of their own if the organizer holds a valid business licence for that location; season-long markets aren’t addressed. No licence is needed for a special event in a City-owned facility or park held under a contract with Parks, Recreation and Culture. Temporary and special-event licences exist (flea markets and craft fairs $165.00; special-event organizer $41.25), but neither the form nor the fee table says who at a market must hold one.

Mobile businesses

A business with its main fixed location in Nanaimo that moves from client to client in two or more Vancouver Island communities can add an Inter-Community licence, on top of the City licence; a market stall probably doesn’t qualify. Mobile food vending — food carts, trailers and trucks — is excluded. Nanaimo does not list its partners; the Province lists it in both the Central Vancouver Island and the Vancouver Island partnerships.

Fee: $170 a year, separate from and in addition to the City licence (non-profits exempt)