What happens if my municipal licence and my provincial liquor licence have different approval timelines?

Each licence is issued by a different level of government with its own separate process, so there's no reason to expect a municipal business licence and a provincial liquor licence to move at the same pace, and in practice they very often don't — a business needing both generally has to satisfy two independent regulators, each with its own application requirements, review standards, and timeline, with no coordination between them built into the process.

This matters for closing because a business that depends on both licences to operate fully may find itself approved on one front but still waiting on the other, creating a gap where the business can legally open in some respects but not others, or not at all if the outstanding licence is essential to operations as currently run.

Because these processes are entirely outside your control and rarely move in lockstep, build meaningful buffer time into your closing timeline for whichever licence typically takes longer, and have a plan for a possible gap between the two approvals. A Treadstone business lawyer can help structure your closing conditions around this reality.