“The permit” is never one thing. A restaurant in Ontario answers to at least six regimes, run by different authorities asking unrelated questions, and several of them depend on each other. Get the order right and most of them run in parallel. Get it wrong and each one waits for the last.
This guide sets out every approval, who issues it and where it falls. The complete timeline shows how long each phase takes, and what the health unit checks goes deep on the public health review.
Every approval at a glance
| Approval | Who issues it | When in the project |
|---|---|---|
| Zoning confirmation | City planning or zoning | Before you sign the lease |
| Building permit (or change-of-use permit) | Municipal building department | After the construction drawings, before work starts |
| Notice to public health and plan review | Local public health unit | In parallel with the building permit |
| Electrical notification | Electrical Safety Authority (ESA), filed by the electrical contractor | Before the electrical work |
| Gas installation | A certified gas technician or contractor | During construction |
| Kitchen exhaust and fire suppression | Built to NFPA 96 under the Ontario Fire Code | Designed early, inspected before opening |
| Grease interceptor | Municipal or regional sewer-use by-law | Designed with the plumbing, installed during construction |
| Sign permit | Municipal building department | Before any sign goes up |
| Business licence | City licensing office | Before opening |
| Liquor sales licence | Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) | Last, once building, fire and health have signed off |
Zoning: before anything is signed
Zoning decides whether a restaurant is allowed in the unit at all, and how much parking and what kind of use come with it. It is the one question worth answering before a lease is signed, because no amount of design fixes a use the zoning does not permit. Some cities make it explicit: Mississauga will not issue a restaurant licence without a zoning certificate of occupancy or a building permit. Zoning decides before anyone else does covers what to check.
The building permit, and the change-of-use trap
The municipal building department, through its chief building official, issues the building permit for the construction. Ontario’s Building Code sets how long the official has to decide once a complete application is in:
| Class of building (Building Code Table 1.3.1.3.) | Time to issue or refuse |
|---|---|
| Houses, small accessory structures, tents, signs, stages | 10 days |
| Smaller buildings under Part 9 of the Code | 15 days |
| Larger buildings under Part 3 of the Code | 20 days |
| High buildings and post-disaster buildings | 30 days |
Saturdays, holidays and other days the office is closed do not count. A restaurant fit-out falls in the 15-day or 20-day row depending on the building. The clock only starts on a complete application: the right form, every applicable field and schedule filled in, and the fees paid. In our experience an incomplete first submission is the most common cause of delay, because a resubmission goes back into the queue.
The trap is the change of use. Under section 10 of the Building Code Act, nobody may change the use of a building or part of one, even though no construction is proposed, if the change would increase the hazard as the Code defines it, without a permit. A retail or office unit becoming a restaurant is the textbook case, and it pulls washrooms, exiting, occupant load and barrier-free access into scope as code requirements.
Public health: notice and plan review
The Health Protection and Promotion Act says every person who intends to operate a food premise shall give notice to the medical officer of health of the health unit where it will be. The Food Premises regulation (O. Reg. 493/17) adds that the notice includes your name, contact information and the location.
In practice each health unit also reviews the floor plans and carries out a pre-opening inspection, and the details vary. Peel Public Health, for instance, wants notice at least 14 days before a new premises opens and again before renovation work starts. Our city pages name the health unit and its process for each city we work in. Submit the plans to the health unit at the same time as the building permit application. They are separate reviews asking different questions, and running them back to back costs weeks for nothing.
Electrical: the ESA notification
Almost all electrical work in Ontario has to be reported to the Electrical Safety Authority. The person doing the work files the notification, so when you hire a licensed electrical contractor, they file it. A commercial kitchen usually needs a bigger service than the unit was built with, and that upgrade is often the first thing on the electrical side to schedule. The local utility’s part of it runs on the utility’s calendar, not yours.
Gas: certified installers only
Ontario’s gaseous fuels regulation (O. Reg. 212/01) says no one may install, alter, purge, activate, repair, service or remove gas appliances or equipment without holding a certificate for that purpose. Ranges, fryers, ovens and rooftop units all go in through a certified gas technician, and a new or larger gas service is arranged with the gas utility. Power and gas for a commercial kitchen covers sizing both.
Kitchen exhaust and fire suppression: NFPA 96
The Ontario Fire Code requires a cooking operation that produces smoke or grease-laden vapours to have an exhaust system and fire protection system in accordance with NFPA 96, the standard for ventilation and fire protection of commercial cooking, and to maintain them to the same standard. Hood, duct, fan, suppression and make-up air are designed together, and the fire department inspects before you open. Commercial kitchen ventilation, explained goes through the system.
Grease interceptor: the sewer-use by-law
Grease interception is set by the municipality’s sewer-use by-law, not the menu. The Region of Waterloo’s by-law requires every operator of a restaurant or other establishment where food is cooked, processed or prepared, and that discharges to a sanitary sewer, to install and maintain an interceptor built to the current Building Code. Toronto’s sewer by-law (Municipal Code Chapter 681) requires the same of premises where food is cooked or prepared. If the interceptor has to go in the floor, it is cheaper to know at the drawing stage than to find out after the slab is finished.
Signs: a separate permit
Signs need their own permit in most Ontario cities. Toronto’s sign by-law says no sign may be put up, displayed or changed without a sign permit from the chief building official; Kitchener’s says the same of permanent, portable and temporary signs. Landlord sign criteria, in a plaza or a mall, apply on top.
The business licence
Each of the seven cities we work in licenses food businesses, and the licence is usually the last municipal step before opening because it depends on the others:
- Toronto licenses eating and drinking establishments through Municipal Licensing and Standards.
- Mississauga: restaurants and retail food businesses must have a licence to operate, and it needs a zoning certificate of occupancy or a building permit plus health clearance from the Region of Peel.
- Kitchener licenses food shops; the city gives three to four weeks as its standard processing time, depending on inspections.
- Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and London license food businesses too. Each city’s licensing page lists what it needs before it will issue.
The liquor licence comes last
If you will serve alcohol, the AGCO’s liquor sales licence needs a Municipal Information Form signed by the municipal clerk’s office, which records whether the area is “wet”, “damp” or “dry”. It also needs three municipal compliance letters, from the building department, the fire service and public health, each confirming the premises meets the standards it administers. Those letters can only be written about a finished room, so the liquor licence follows the inspections rather than running alongside them. Plan the opening date around that.
The order that works
- Before the lease: confirm zoning, and that the unit can physically take your exhaust, power and gas.
- Drawings: one coordinated set, where the equipment layout, the mechanical drawings and the hood coverage agree.
- In parallel: the building (or change-of-use) permit application, the public health notice and plan review, and orders for long-lead equipment.
- Construction: ESA notification, certified gas work, the interceptor and the NFPA 96 exhaust system, built to the approved plans.
- Inspections: building final, the public health pre-opening inspection and the fire inspection, against what the plans promised.
- Licences: the business licence, then the AGCO compliance letters and the liquor licence.
Requirements change, and the authority having jurisdiction decides any specific project. Check each one for your address before you rely on anything here. That checking is a large part of what our permits and compliance service does.
Sources
- Building Code Act, 1992, s. 10 (change of use): ontario.ca/laws/statute/92b23
- Ontario Building Code, O. Reg. 332/12, Division C, Article 1.3.1.3. and Table 1.3.1.3. (permit time periods): ontario.ca/laws/regulation/120332
- Health Protection and Promotion Act, s. 16 (2): ontario.ca/laws/statute/90h07
- Food Premises, O. Reg. 493/17, s. 5: ontario.ca/laws/regulation/170493
- Fire Code, O. Reg. 213/07, Articles 2.6.1.12. and 2.6.1.13.: ontario.ca/laws/regulation/070213
- Gaseous Fuels, O. Reg. 212/01, s. 6 (1): ontario.ca/laws/regulation/010212
- Electrical Safety Authority, notifying ESA about electrical work: esasafe.com
- AGCO, liquor sales licences, municipal approval: agco.ca
- Region of Waterloo Sewer Use By-law 21-036, s. 16; Toronto Municipal Code Chapters 681 (Sewers) and 694 (Signs)
- City licensing pages for Toronto, Mississauga, Kitchener, Waterloo, Cambridge, Guelph and London, checked October 2026
