Food shops

How to open a grocery or specialty food store on Vancouver Island

A food shop needs Island Health’s approval to operate before it opens — or an Operating permitIsland Health’s permit to run a restaurant, café, food truck or other food service business. You get it after the pre-opening inspection, pay its fee each year, and post it where customers can see it.All terms in the glossary if it serves food to eat on the spot. Everything on your shelves must come from an approved source, and scales used to sell by weight must meet Measurement Canada rules.

Only want the steps that apply to you?

Answer a few yes-or-no questions and this list trims to your business. Build your checklist

What you need, in order

15 steps. Each links to its own page, with the forms and the rule behind it.

1
Zoning for a shop, café or kitchen
Your municipality
Before you sign a lease
Before you sign a lease, check that the ZoningThe municipal rules that say what each property may be used for. A café, a bakery or a food processor needs a property zoned for that use before any permit is worth applying for — check it before you sign a lease.All terms in the glossary at that address allows your use. Cities split food businesses into separate uses — restaurant, take-out, drive-through, food processing, retail — and a use a zone doesn’t list is not allowed there; making food with no counter is often an industrial use. Victoria’s 2018 zoning bylaw bans drive-throughs in every zone it covers.
Cost:
Looking it up is free. A written confirmation costs $80 to $210 where a municipality sells one — see the table on this page.
2
Island Health plan approval
Island Health
Before you build, renovate or fit out a restaurant, café, bakery, food processor, commissary, food truck or food shop, Island Health must approve your floor plan and equipment. You send the plans first, build only once they are approved, and an inspector checks the finished space before you open. A shop selling only whole fresh produce, or PrepackagedSealed in its package before it reaches the customer, the way it will be sold. Prepackaged food must carry the federal food label.All terms in the glossary foods that aren’t Higher-risk foodFood that bacteria can grow in, or produce toxins in, unless it is kept cold or hot — meat, fish, dairy, eggs, cut fruit, most cooked meals. The law calls it “potentially hazardous food”. It must come from an approved kitchen, never a home one.All terms in the glossary, is exempt.
3
Building permit for a renovation or change of use
Your municipality
Altering a commercial space — or only changing its use, say a shop becoming a café — needs a building permit from your municipality, even with no construction; painting and other cosmetic work don’t. You can’t open until the building inspector’s final inspection and occupancy permit. A change of use can bring seismic, fire-separation, accessibility and sprinkler upgrades, and most municipalities want Island Health’s approved plans with it.
Cost:
Set by each municipality, from a percentage of the construction value to a fee per $1,000 — see the table on this page. Starting work without a permit usually doubles it.
Time:
Most municipalities publish no processing time. Victoria expects four to six months for extensive changes; Nanaimo targets 8 weeks for a tenant improvement.
4
Fire inspection and kitchen fire safety
Your fire department
Your licence may need a fire inspection
Two things. First, your municipality’s fire department may inspect a new restaurant, café, shop or kitchen — some before they issue your Business licenceYour municipality’s permission to do business there, renewed each year in most towns. It is separate from Island Health’s permits and from zoning: you usually need all three.All terms in the glossary, others on a yearly or risk-based schedule after you open. Second, any cooking that gives off grease-laden vapour — fryers, grills, woks, ranges — needs a hood, duct and automatic fire-suppression system built to the NFPA 96 standard, which the BC Building Code requires.
5
Approval to operate
Island Health
What Island Health gives a Food premisesIn BC law, any place where food for the public is sold, prepared, packaged, stored, served or transported — a restaurant, a food truck, a bakery, a warehouse. The Food Premises Regulation sets the rules for all of them, with a few exceptions.All terms in the glossary that doesn’t serve food to eat on the spot — a food processor, a bakery with no retail counter, a food shop, a commissary — instead of an operating permit. It follows the same Plan approvalIsland Health’s review of your floor plan, equipment and menu before you build or renovate a food premises. Nothing gets built until it is approved, and the pre-opening inspection checks you built what was approved.All terms in the glossary and pre-opening inspection, and must be in place before you open.
Cost:
No yearly fee: the Health Act Fees Regulation charges only operating permits.
6
Health operating permit
Island Health
If you serve food to eat on the spot
The permit a “food service establishment” needs — anywhere food is prepared and served to eat right away: restaurants, cafés, take-outs, caterers, and food trucks that prepare higher-risk food. Island Health issues it after a pre-opening inspection, and it can’t be transferred: a new owner or a new address needs a new one.
Cost:
$150 a year for up to 50 seats, take-outs and caterers; $250 over 50 seats; a food truck chooses $150 or a flat $75. Opening part-way through the April–March year, you pay by the month. No fee if you operate 14 days or fewer in that year.
7
A legal-for-trade scale, if you price by weight
Measurement Canada
If you sell by weight
Only matters if you charge by weight — by the pound or kilo at the counter or market table. Then the scale must be a “legal for trade” model, the kind sold for retail use with a Measurement Canada approval number, rather than a kitchen scale, and a private service company checks it every five years. It sits level, faces the customer and is zeroed, and packaging isn’t charged. Food sold by the piece, or in packs that all weigh the same, doesn’t need one; neither does portioning a burger patty.
8
Deposits on drinks in containers
BC Recycling Regulation (Encorp / Return-It)
If you sell drinks in containers
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.
9
Bags, takeout containers and utensils
Federal, provincial and municipal rules
Plastic checkout bags, plastic utensils, stir sticks and foam or PVC takeout ware are banned. A paper bag costs the customer at least 25¢ and a reusable one $2, shown on the receipt — though restaurants may give free paper bags for delivery. Utensils, straws, napkins, condiments and lids go out only when the customer asks or accepts an offer (or takes them from a self-serve station), including on app orders — though a lid may go on a delivery or drive-through drink without asking. Victoria also requires reusable ware for dine-in since March 2026.
10
Patio and sign permits
Your municipality
For a patio or signage
Most municipalities require a permit for an exterior sign; Sidney doesn’t. A patio on a public sidewalk needs a patio licence or agreement where the municipality has a program at all — Victoria, Langford, Oak Bay, Sidney, Courtenay, Nanaimo and Duncan do — usually with $5 million of liability insurance naming the municipality.
Cost:
Signs from free (Sidney) to $250 (Colwood); patios from $50 to apply plus a yearly rate — see the tables on this page.
11
Municipal business licence
Your municipality
Every municipality on the Island requires a business licence — for a restaurant, café, shop or kitchen, for a business run from home, and for a food truck. For a storefront it is usually $100 to $200 a year, set by floor area; Nanaimo charges $165, Campbell River $150, and Courtenay’s fees rise in 2027. It is normally the last approval you get: most municipalities issue it only once zoning, building, fire and Island Health have signed off, and you can’t open before it’s issued.
12
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.
13
WorkSafeBC coverage
WorkSafeBC
Once you hire staff
Required by law once you hire anyone — full-time, part-time, casual or contract. WorkSafeBC suggests applying 30 days before your first hire. A self-employed owner with no workers doesn’t have to register, but can buy personal coverage.
14
GST registration
Canada Revenue Agency
Most groceries are zero-rated, but candy, snacks, carbonated drinks, hot food, catering and sweet baked goods sold in packs of fewer than six are taxable at 5%. You must register once your sales pass $30,000 in a quarter or over four quarters — and zero-rated grocery sales count toward it.
15
BC PST registration
BC Ministry of Finance
If you sell soda beverages or other taxable goods
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.

What it costs, and what to start early

Government and course fees only. Rent, building work, equipment and insurance aren’t here — they depend on your project.

Fees with a set price
Set fees	First year
Approval to operate	Free
Health operating permitIf it applies — not added	$150–$250
Registering your business name	$40–$350
Set fees, first year	$40–$350

Set by your municipality

Each municipality sets these. Choose yours to see its figures, or compare them on Local rules.

No set price

Some are free; others depend on who you use or what you need.

Island Health plan approval · A legal-for-trade scale, if you price by weight · Deposits on drinks in containers · Bags, takeout containers and utensils · WorkSafeBC coverage · GST registration · BC PST registration

Start these early

Building permit for a renovation or change of use
Most municipalities publish no processing time. Victoria expects four to six months for extensive changes; Nanaimo targets 8 weeks for a tenant improvement.

Rules where you are

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

When you’re ready to sell

Selling on Local Pass

Your shelves already carry what Islanders want. Local Pass puts them online for delivery and pickup, without you building a web shop.

Your own storefront
A storefront on Local Pass, with every product on its own page, built to be found on Google.
Sell by weight
Price by the pound or kilo: the customer’s card is held at checkout, and they’re charged the actual weight when you pack the order.
Scan to pick
Scan each item as you pack an order — with your phone’s camera or a barcode scanner — so nothing gets missed.

How Local Pass works for grocers No subscription — a fee on each sale.

Local Pass is a platform that connects Island businesses and customers through its app and website — it is not a regulator. Every seller is responsible for the permits, licences and labels their food needs, and this guide is here to help you work out which ones.