Starting a food business in Sidney

Opening a shop, café, kitchen or truck in Sidney

Business licence

$100 a year; $200 over 500 m². Renewal is free if made by February 28.

Applying for the licence

Online or by email to licensing@sidney.ca. After you pay come the inspections, Island Health approval and floor plans — a café or restaurant shows its tables and chairs. Planning, building and fire sign off.

Checking zoning

Check with the Town before you commit to a lease — developmentservices@sidney.ca, 250-656-1725. The zoning map and SidneyMap are online.

Building permit

Needed to change a building’s occupancy. $100 for the first $1,000 plus $13 per $1,000 to $100,000, and a $100 plan-processing fee for commercial alterations. Island Health approval may be asked for; applications are reviewed in the order received.

Fire inspection

The Town’s licence and fire inspectors inspect the premises before the licence, at a time you arrange; every commercial space needs a 5 lb ABC extinguisher. A café or restaurant sends a floor plan to set its seats, posts its occupant load, and keeps an approved fire safety plan.

Food truck fire inspection

Inspected every year, with a Town sticker: a 10 lb extinguisher, Class K for oil, and for grease-vapour cooking an NFPA 96 hood and suppression serviced within six months.

Where to ask: Development Services, 250-656-1725

Business licence

All businesses operating in Sidney need a valid Town business licence, unless exempted or covered by an intermunicipal licence. Renewal is free if made on or before February 28 each year.

Home-based fee: "Home Occupation $100.00"; "Minor Home Occupation $50.00" (a hobby shop, craft shop, instructor or private teacher)

Running it from home

Sidney’s zoning bars every home occupation from displaying or selling goods — foodstuffs named — from the property, so a home food business cannot sell from the home. The work must stay inside the dwelling or an accessory building, with only residents working on site and no fumes, smoke or odours detectable outside.

• No display or retail sale of goods, wares, merchandise or foodstuffs from the property (s. 4.2.2(a)(iv); the same in multi-unit zones).
• Only residents engaged in on-site business activities (s. 4.2.2(a)(ii)).
• Wholly inside the dwelling unit or an accessory building (s. 4.2.2(a)(i)).
• No equipment or process with impacts detectable outside the dwelling, including fumes, smoke or odours (s. 4.2.2(a)(iii)).
• Single- or two-family dwelling: at most 20% of the principal dwelling or 50 m², whichever is less; 15 m² in a secondary suite (s. 4.2.2(b)). Multi-unit zones: 30% or 50 m², one home occupation per unit, and no customer-facing ("high traffic") businesses (s. 4.3.2).
• At most two home occupations per dwelling; one that receives customers may have no more than two in the unit at a time (s. 4.2.2(a)(viii), (c)).
• Licence conditions: no parking beyond the occupant’s vehicle and one business vehicle; no outdoor storage (Business Licence Bylaw s. 10.14).

Markets and events

Seasonal or event licences ($25.00 per quarter — the application form gives a pop-up bakery as an example) and Temporary Outdoor Market licences ($100.00) last no more than 6 consecutive weeks or 42 non-continuous days a year. Markets on public property must follow the Town’s Temporary Outdoor Market Bylaw, which was not read, so the rules for vendors at Sidney markets are not covered here.

Mobile businesses

Sidney is in the Greater Victoria Intermunicipal licence, at no extra cost. Its new Inter-Community Business Licence Bylaw No. 2314 (adopted April 27, 2026) excludes mobile food vending — food carts, trailers and trucks — and sets a $170 fee.

Fee: Intermunicipal: no additional charge. Inter-Community: $170 (Bylaw 2314 and the web page); the November 2025 form says "an additional licence charge of $70" — not reconciled