Food business permits and licences in BC
No business needs all 57 of these. Start from your kind of business to get only yours, in order. Each permit’s page says who needs it, how to apply, what it costs in your municipality and what comes next.
Find the ones you need
Working from home?
Opening a restaurant, café, shop or kitchen: the order things happen in
This is the order the City of Victoria publishes for a restaurant, filled in with the steps every storefront shares. The step most people get wrong is the second: a lease signed before checking zoning can’t be undone. Each permit’s page shows what your municipality does differently.
- 1
Register your business name
With BC Registries — unless you trade under your own name.
- 2
Check the zoning before you sign a lease
Confirm the zone allows your use at that address — restaurant, take-out and food processing are often separate uses. Ask the municipality; Victoria will also confirm the space’s legal use.
- 3
Apply early for a liquor licence, if you’ll serve alcohol
Victoria lists it third — before the health and building approvals, not after.
- 4
Get Island Health to approve your plans
Floor plan, equipment, menu, food safety and sanitation plans — approved before anything is built.
- 5
Get your building permit
Altering the space, or only changing its use, needs one. Municipalities want the health-approved plans: Victoria before it issues the permit, Langford and Nanaimo with the application. Gas work goes through a licensed contractor’s Technical Safety BC permit; in Greater Victoria, the Grease interceptorA tank on a kitchen’s drain line that catches fats, oils and grease before they reach the sewer. Most food businesses on a municipal sewer need one, sized, installed and pumped out under the local sewer rules.All terms in the glossary starts with a CRD form.
- 6
Build, then pass the inspections
The building inspector’s final inspection and occupancy permit, the fire department’s inspection where your municipality asks for one, and Island Health’s pre-opening inspection.
- 7
Receive your operating permit or approval to operate
From Island Health, once the space passes and any fee is paid. You can’t open before it.
- 8
Apply for the business licence last
In Victoria’s words, “once the business owner, the City and other regulatory organizations are satisfied that the requirements to open a restaurant are met.”
Where this comes from
Sources
- Starting a Business(How to Start a Restaurant Business, Steps 1–6)City of Victoria · No date shown
- Sole proprietorships and partnershipsGovernment of British Columbia · Page updated September 14, 2026
- Food SafetyIsland Health · No date shown on the page
- Food Premises Regulation, B.C. Reg. 210/99(ss. 3 and 6)Province of British Columbia (BC Laws) · Current to October 6, 2026 (last amended October 27, 2025)
- Complex Building eApplication Checklist – Interior Alterations, Change of Use(p. 1)City of Victoria · September 4, 2026
- Application Checklist: Tenant Improvement(p. 1)City of Langford · No printed date
- Restaurants & Take-Outs – Tenant Improvement, Building Permit Application Checklist(p. 3 · Island Health–stamped plans)City of Nanaimo · Revised June 2024
- Gas installation permitsTechnical Safety BC · No date shown
- Food services: liquid waste requirements for businessesCapital Regional District · No date shown
- Opening a Food Service Establishment(p. 2 · pre-opening inspection)Island Health · April 2025
Before you commit
Before you sign a lease, buy equipment or book a market stall.
Register and license the business
Registrations and licences to have in hand, or applied for, early — some take weeks.
Set up your kitchen, premises or vehicle
Plans are approved before anything is built or altered.
Get approved to open
The approvals, training and permits you need before your first sale.
Sell it the right way
What every product, sign and receipt must carry.
Once you’re running
What applies once you trade and grow.