Ontario has no single business licence. What you need depends on your municipality, your industry and your address, and zoning is the one that kills deals, because a licence cannot make a use legal where the zoning by-law forbids it. Flat-fee licensing review, $1,128.87, taxes included.
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Municipal. Under the Municipal Act, 2001, and the City of Toronto Act, 2006 in Toronto, municipalities can license, regulate and govern businesses. That covers restaurants, food trucks, personal service settings, contractors, tow trucks, second-hand dealers, short-term rentals and a long tail of local categories. Two neighbouring municipalities routinely license the same business differently.
Provincial. Sector regulators sit on top: the AGCO for liquor, cannabis retail and gaming; your local public health unit for food premises; the TSSA for fuels, boilers and elevating devices; the MTO for commercial vehicles; FSRA for mortgage brokers and insurance; RECO for real estate registrants under the Trust in Real Estate Services Act, 2002; OMVIC for motor vehicle dealers; TICO for travel agents.
Federal. Import and export permits, transport, broadcasting, and anything touching food labelling or federally regulated products.
Registering a business name under the Business Names Act and incorporating are neither of them licences. They let you operate under a name. They say nothing about whether you may lawfully do the thing.
A municipal business licence does not override the zoning by-law. If the by-law does not permit your use at that address, the licence gets refused, or, worse, issued and then followed by an enforcement order. Check zoning before you sign a lease or an offer, and get it in writing from the municipality rather than from the landlord or the listing agent.
If the use is not permitted, the routes are a minor variance through the Committee of Adjustment or a zoning by-law amendment through council, both under the Planning Act. Both take months, both can be appealed, and neither is guaranteed. Build a zoning condition into the offer so you are not paying rent on premises you cannot legally use.
Home-based businesses have their own zoning limits, covering floor area, signage, employees on site, client visits, storage and parking. A condominium declaration and rules add a second layer that the municipality has nothing to do with, and that most people discover after they have moved in.
Building permits under the Building Code Act, 1992 are required for construction and, often overlooked, for a change of use even where nothing is being built. Converting a retail unit into a restaurant is a change of use, and doing the work first and applying afterwards costs more in every direction.
Then the specifics: fire approvals under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, 1997, electrical inspection through the Electrical Safety Authority, sign permits, patio and boulevard permits, a health inspection before a food premises can open, grease interceptors, and accessibility obligations under the AODA.
Sequencing matters more than any individual permit. Health and fire inspections usually cannot happen until construction is finished, the licence usually cannot issue until the inspections pass, and the lease is running the whole time. Map the order before you commit to an opening date or a launch campaign.
Operating without a required licence is an offence, prosecuted under the Provincial Offences Act, and municipalities can seek closure orders as well as fines. Beyond the penalty, an unlicensed operation gives your insurer a reason to deny a claim and your landlord a reason to call a default. It also damages a future sale: a buyer's lawyer asks for the licences during due diligence, and a missing one becomes a price adjustment.
Licences also carry conditions and renewal dates. Most are annual, most require the business to still meet the original conditions, and some require a fresh police record check or inspection each time. Losing a licence to a missed renewal is common and entirely avoidable.
Sometimes. Many trades and personal service businesses need a municipal licence wherever they operate from, and some municipalities license home occupations directly. Separately, zoning limits what you can do at a residential address: client visits, signage, staff on site, and storage of equipment and vehicles. Check both the licensing by-law and the zoning by-law for your municipality. They are different documents with different rules.
No. Get it from the municipality. A zoning compliance letter or written confirmation from the planning department is the document you want, and it usually takes days rather than weeks. Landlords and agents describe zoning from memory or from an old listing, and the person who pays for that mistake is the tenant holding a signed lease and a use they cannot operate.
Plan in months, not weeks, for anything involving inspections. A straightforward municipal business licence with no inspection can issue quickly. A restaurant needs building permit approval, construction, then fire and health inspections, and only then the licence, in that order. AGCO liquor licences involve a public notice period. Start applications the day the lease is firm, not the day the build is finished.
Usually not. Most municipal and provincial licences are personal to the licensee and cannot be transferred, so you have to apply in your own name and the timing has to line up with closing. This is a standard due diligence item in any share or asset purchase: confirm which licences exist, whether they transfer, and whether closing should be conditional on your own approvals being issued first.
No. Registering a business name under the Business Names Act records the name you trade under. Incorporating creates a legal entity. Neither gives you permission to operate. Licensing is the permission, and it comes from the municipality or the sector regulator based on your industry and your address.
Open your file tonight — a licensed Ontario lawyer will confirm everything with you by tomorrow.