Restaurants, cafés & food service

How to open a restaurant or café on Vancouver Island

To open a restaurant or café on Vancouver Island you need Island Health to approve your plans before you build, 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 before you open, FOODSAFEBC’s food handler course. The operator of a restaurant, café, food truck or other food service business must hold a FOODSAFE Level 1 certificate or an equivalent.All terms in the glossary Level 1, and a written Food safety planYour written account of where food could become unsafe in your kitchen and how you prevent it — cooking and cooling temperatures, for example, and what you do when one is missed. BC requires one from every food premises, alongside a sanitation plan.All terms in the glossary — plus your municipality’s 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, building permits and 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, and a liquor licence if you serve alcohol.

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What you need, in order

18 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 zoning 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
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.
3
Food primary liquor licence
Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch
Only if you serve alcohol — apply early
Lets a restaurant or café serve alcohol when food is the main business, with a varied menu cooked in its own kitchen. Take-out-only restaurants, food trucks and food courts are not eligible. You need a CRA business number and a Business BCeID; the floor plan needs your municipality’s occupant-load stamp, and the municipality signs off only for service past midnight, dancing or karaoke, or a temporary use area. The licence also allows sealed alcohol for takeout or delivery with a meal — sold before 11 p.m., delivered by 11:30 p.m., by drivers 19 or older with Serving It Right. A catering endorsement adds off-site events.
Cost:
$950 for the application and first year ($475 + $475); renewal from $325 a year, by liquor purchases. Adding a catering endorsement: $330, then $130 a year.
4
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.
5
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.
6
Grease interceptor
The CRD in Greater Victoria; your municipality elsewhere
A food business that sends fat, oil or grease down the drain needs a 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 — a tank that catches it before it blocks the sewer. In Greater Victoria the CRD’s bylaw requires one and wants its Waste Discharge Assessment Form before you choose it; Victoria wants the CRD’s answer before it issues your building permit. Nanaimo, Courtenay, Duncan and North Cowichan have their own bylaws requiring one. Food trucks are exempt.
Cost:
CRD fines reach $10,000 a day.
7
Gas and propane work
Technical Safety BC
If you cook with gas or propane
Installing or altering a gas range, fryer, line or propane tank must be done by a licensed gas contractor under a Technical Safety BC installation permit — on the Island, no municipality issues its own, and the homeowner permit isn’t open to a business. Every new appliance must carry a certification mark or a Technical Safety BC approval mark. A business that owns a propane tank also needs an operating permit for it; refillable cylinders don’t.
8
Fire inspection and kitchen fire safety
Your fire department
Two things. First, your municipality’s fire department may inspect a new restaurant, café, shop or kitchen — some before they issue your business licence, 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.
9
Food safety plan and sanitation plan
You write them; Island Health approves them
Two short written documents: a food safety plan, saying how you keep each food safe and what you do when something goes wrong, and a Sanitation planYour written routine for cleaning and sanitizing, pest control and garbage: what is cleaned, how, how often and with what. BC requires one from every food premises, alongside a food safety plan.All terms in the glossary, saying how you clean and sanitise. Every restaurant, caterer, food processor and kitchen needs both, and Island Health approves them before it issues your permit or approval.
10
FOODSAFE Level 1
BC FOODSAFE Secretariat
Required by law of every operator of a food service establishment, and of at least one person on shift when the operator is away. Island Health asks for the certificate with a permit application.
Cost:
Online $69–$88 (FOODSAFE’s own pages differ), distance $105–$115, classroom fees vary by provider. Valid 5 years.
11
Health operating permit
Island Health
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.
12
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.
13
Municipal business licence
Your municipality
Last: approved once the other sign-offs are in
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.
14
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.
15
Serving It Right
Province of BC (Responsible Service BC)
Only if you serve alcohol
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.
16
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.
17
BC PST registration
BC Ministry of Finance
Only if you sell soda, kombucha or alcohol
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.
18
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.

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
Registering your business name	$40–$350
Food primary liquor licenceIf it applies — not added	$950
FOODSAFE Level 1	$69–$115
Health operating permit	$150–$250
Serving It RightIf it applies — not added	$25–$40
Set fees, first year	$259–$715

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 · Gas and propane work · Food safety plan and sanitation plan · WorkSafeBC coverage · GST registration · BC PST registration · Bags, takeout containers and utensils

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

Once your doors are open, Local Pass adds the customers who order in to the ones who walk in — people across Vancouver Island ordering delivery and pickup from local kitchens.

Your own restaurant page
Your menu, photos and hours on a restaurant page built to be found on Google, with ordering built in.
Delivery and pickup
Local Pass drivers or your own, across several delivery zones — and customers follow their order live.
POS integration
Orders go straight into your point-of-sale, so nobody re-keys a ticket — Square today, with more systems on the way.

How Local Pass works for restaurants 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.