How to open a brewery, winery, cidery or distillery in BC

1. 1

   Zoning for your food business

   Your municipality

   Check zoning for your production site first

   Before you sign a lease, check that the zone for the address allows your use — and in Victoria, ask Permits and Inspections to confirm the space’s legal use too, which can differ. Cities define uses narrowly: a restaurant, a take-out, a drive-through and food processing are often separate uses, and a use a zone doesn’t list is not allowed there. Making food with no counter is usually an industrial use: Langford excludes primary processing of meat, poultry and fish from its light-industrial use, and Nanaimo excludes processing livestock, fish and poultry from its food-processing use. Victoria’s 2018 zoning bylaw bans drive-throughs in every zone it covers.

   Cost:

   Saanich will confirm zoning in a letter for $200, within 10 working days.

2. 2

   Building permit for alterations or a change of use

   Your municipality

   Altering a commercial space — or only changing its use, say a shop becoming a café — needs a building permit, even with no construction; painting and other cosmetic work don’t. You can’t move in until the city issues an occupancy permit. A change of occupancy can trigger seismic, fire-separation, accessibility and sprinkler upgrades, and a restaurant for more than 30 people usually needs an architect. Langford and Nanaimo want Island Health’s stamped floor plans with the application; Victoria needs Island Health’s approval before it issues the permit.

   Cost:

   Victoria: $100 to apply plus 1.40% of the construction cost. Saanich: $100 for the first $1,000 plus $13 per $1,000 up to $500,000, and an application fee from $100 by project value. Langford: $63.41 for the first $1,000 plus $12.66 per $1,000 up to $100,000 (less above). Nanaimo: $105 plus $10 per $1,000 up to $100,000, then $7 per $1,000. Starting without a permit doubles the fee in Langford, and in Saanich (up to $20,000 extra).

   Time:

   Victoria expects four to six months for extensive changes. Nanaimo targets 8 weeks for a tenant improvement, and says it isn’t meeting its targets.

3. 3

   Federal excise licence

   Canada Revenue Agency

   Producing or packaging spirits or wine needs a licence under the Excise Act, 2001; brewing beer for sale needs a brewer’s licence under the Excise Act, with a bond of at least $5,000. Excise duty is also payable on what you produce. Wine made wholly from Canadian honey or apples is exempt from duty, and so is a wine licensee with $50,000 or less in sales — an exemption from the duty, not from the licence.

4. 4

   Manufacturer licence: brewery, winery or distillery

   Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch

   Needed to make beer, wine (cider, mead and sake included) or spirits. The base licence covers production, tastings and tours; an on-site store endorsement lets you sell bottles and cans on site, online, by delivery and — with a market authorization — at farmers’ markets, and a lounge or special event area lets you sell drinks by the glass on site (both need local government input). You must own or lease the equipment, and hold your federal excise licence before the final inspection.

   Cost:

   $550 to apply, plus a first-year fee of up to $1,100 (brewery or distillery) or $550 (winery), prorated. An on-site store endorsement adds $110 to the application fee and $110 to the first-year fee, then $143 a year.

5. 5

   Sales agreement with the Liquor Distribution Branch

   BC Liquor Distribution Branch

   The Liquor Distribution Branch is BC’s only wholesaler, so every BC maker needs a signed sales agreement with it to sell anywhere in the province. The agreement’s class — land-based or commercial winery, craft or commercial distillery, brewery — sets your markup and who you may deliver to directly, and every product must be registered with it.

6. 6

   Plan approval for your food premises

   Island Health

   For a tasting room or food service

   Every food premises the regulation covers — restaurant, bakery, processor, food truck, commissary and most shops — needs its floor plans and equipment approved by an Environmental Health Officer before it is built or altered, and before it opens; a shop selling only whole produce, or prepackaged food that doesn’t need refrigeration, is exempt. The premises must be separate from living quarters.

7. 7

   Serving It Right

   Province of BC (Responsible Service BC)

   Required by law of every licensee, manager and server who sells or serves alcohol. Licence terms add anyone delivering it — including a third-party app’s driver, who must also be 19 or older (common carriers such as Canada Post are exempt). At special events, servers can take the shorter Special Event Server course at any size; permit holders and managers can use it only for events under 500 people.

   Cost:

   The course is free; the exam is $40 (Special Event Server: $25). Valid 5 years.

8. 8

   Market authorization for alcohol at farmers’ markets

   Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch

   For selling at farmers’ markets

   Lets a brewery, winery, cidery or distillery with an on-site store sell sealed bottles and pour small samples at a farmers’ market. The market must qualify (at least six vendors who don’t sell alcohol, most of them farmers, food makers or artisans), and the local government must allow alcohol sales at markets. One authorization per market; staff need Serving It Right.

   Cost:

   Free, and approved automatically.

9. 9

   Special event permit (liquor)

   Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch

   For events

   Needed to sell or serve alcohol at an event outside a licensed venue; a private party at home needs no permit, but you can’t sell liquor there. The liquor must be bought in BC from an authorised store or maker, drink prices are capped unless the event raises money for charity, and events on public land need that government’s written permission. Servers need Special Event Server training or Serving It Right at any size of event; the permit holder and managers need Serving It Right if 500 or more people attend.

   Cost:

   $100 per day and location for a public event; $25 for a private one.

   Time:

   Apply 4 to 6 weeks ahead; events that don’t need police or LCRB review are approved automatically.

10. 10

    Farm store rules on Agricultural Land Reserve land

    Agricultural Land Commission

    For a farm winery, cidery or distillery on ALR land

    A farm stand or store in the ALR needs no ALC approval, and the ALC sets no size limit, if everything it sells is grown on your farm — though your local government can cap its building area or site coverage. Selling bought-in goods too caps the whole retail area at 300 m², at least half of it for your own farm’s products. Processing on the farm is allowed when at least half of what you process is your own. A café or restaurant is not a farm use and needs an ALC application — except the lounge of a licensed farm winery, cidery, brewery, distillery or meadery (up to 125 m² indoors and 125 m² outdoors).

    Cost:

    A non-farm-use application to the ALC is $1,500 ($750 to your local government, $750 to the ALC).

11. 11

    Deposits on drinks in containers

    BC Recycling Regulation (Encorp / Return-It)

    Anyone selling a drink in a sealed container must collect a deposit of at least 10¢ per container, shown on the receipt — unless it is drunk on your premises. A business that makes a drink in BC is its “producer” and must be covered by an approved stewardship plan: for non-alcoholic drinks, register with Encorp (Return-It) and pay its recycling fee per container. There is no small-producer exemption.

    Cost:

    2026 recycling fees: plastic 7¢, glass 13¢, aluminum 0¢ per container, on top of the 10¢ deposit the customer pays.

12. 12

    BC PST registration

    BC Ministry of Finance

    Food, candy included, is exempt from PST. Sweetened carbonated drinks — kombucha included — are taxed at 7%, and liquor at 10%. Sell only exempt food and you don’t register; sell soda beverages and you do, unless you are a small seller with $10,000 or less in sales and no shop.

13. 13

    Patio and sign permits

    Your municipality

    For a patio or signage

    Exterior signs need a permit in Victoria, Saanich, Langford and Nanaimo; Saanich doesn’t allow roof, projecting, animated or portable signs. Once you hold a business licence, a patio on a Victoria sidewalk or street needs a yearly patio licence: a site meeting with City staff, an application, an inspection once it is built, and $5 million of liability insurance naming the City. Elsewhere, ask your municipality about patios.

    Cost:

    Signs: $100 each in Victoria (waived until late January 2027), $200 each in Saanich, $100 plus $70 a sign in Langford, $5 per square metre in Nanaimo (minimum $40, maximum $150 a sign). Victoria patios: $100 to apply, then $1.96–$5.78 per square foot for a year, or $0.98–$2.89 for a six-month seasonal licence (2025/26), by area and type; from 2027 rates rise 2.5% a year under an amendment set for adoption in September 2026, replacing a planned doubling.

14. 14

    Municipal business licence

    Your municipality

    Business licences are issued by each municipality, and every one of the twelve checked requires one — home-based food businesses included. Fees differ: most charge about $100 a year for a home-based licence, Nanaimo $165, and Oak Bay $100 to $200 by type under new rules reported adopted in September 2026; Courtenay’s rises from $75 to $150 in 2027. Langford and Colwood charge once, and the licence then carries on. Mobile businesses can share one licence across municipalities — the Greater Victoria Inter-Municipal licence or the Vancouver Island Inter-Community licence ($170 on top of the local licence under the newest bylaws) — but the updated Inter-Community bylaw several municipalities have adopted excludes food trucks, carts and trailers — it starts once all participating municipalities have adopted it — and North Cowichan’s mobile food licence cannot be used intermunicipally.

15. 15

    Registering your business name

    BC Registries

    Trading under your own name needs no registration. Any other name means reserving it and registering within 3 months of first using it; a partnership registers within 3 months of forming. Incorporating is the alternative, and only a corporation, co-op or society gets exclusive use of its name.

    Cost:

    Name request $30 (reserved 56 days); sole proprietorship or partnership registration $40; incorporation $350, then a $43.39 annual report.

Rules where you are

Business licences, zoning and home-business rules differ by municipality.

• City of Victoria
• District of Saanich
• City of Langford
• Township of Esquimalt
• District of Oak Bay
• City of Colwood
• Town of Sidney
• City of Nanaimo
• City of Duncan
• Municipality of North Cowichan
• City of Courtenay
• City of Campbell River