You'll need 7 separate approvals to open a restaurant in Ontario, but only 3 are on the critical path: the building permit, public health, and the fire inspector. The rest run in parallel if you start them on time. The operators who open on schedule aren't the ones who chase each agency in sequence — they're the ones who file every application in the same week and let the slow ones cook in the background while construction moves. That's the job our pre-construction and permit coordination team does on every restaurant we build in the GTA.
This guide walks through every permit you need in 2026, who issues it, the lower bound of the timeline, and what the reviewer wants to see in your first submission so you don't spend a month trading revision letters.
A business license follows once health and fire are clean — count it as the eighth, but it's a formality once the rest are in place.
This is the one that lets you start work. Issued by the city you're in — Toronto, Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Oakville. The building permit reviewer at the city reads your drawings, confirms the layout meets the building code, and clears you to demo, frame, and run rough-in.
What the city's plan reviewer wants to see in the first submission:
Timeline: 3 to 8 weeks for a tenant improvement, depending on city and how clean the package is. Each round of resubmission adds 1 to 3 weeks, which is why a complete first submission is the single biggest lever you have.
Practical note: Pre-application meetings save weeks in Toronto and Markham when the project has anything unusual — heavy equipment loads on an upper floor, a sprinkler relocation, a new washroom. We book those before the drawings go in, not after the first rejection letter.
Your local public health unit — Toronto Public Health, Region of Peel Public Health, York Region Public Health, Halton, Durham — reviews the kitchen plan and does a pre-opening inspection. They sign off your food premises before you can serve.
What the public health inspector wants to see when they walk:
Timeline: Submit the kitchen plan 3 to 6 weeks before you want to open. The pre-opening inspection is booked 1 to 2 weeks before you serve.
Practical note: The single fastest way to fail this inspection is to bring in equipment that isn't food-rated to save a thousand dollars on Facebook Marketplace. The inspector will flag it on sight, and you'll be replacing it the week you wanted to be training staff.
The fire inspector does the pre-opening fire walk. Their sign-off is what releases your final occupancy alongside public health.
What the fire inspector wants to see at the walk:
Timeline: Suppression engineering takes 1 to 2 weeks. The inspector's pre-opening walk is booked the same week as public health, usually 5 to 10 days before opening.
Practical note: Hood and suppression are the items most likely to push your opening day if they're sequenced wrong. We've broken this down in our piece on commercial kitchen ventilation in Ontario and the grease hood vs vapor hood decision.
TSSA — the provincial agency that licenses gas work — is the badge on the inspector who signs off your gas. You need their approval for ranges, ovens, fryers, woks, and gas water heaters.
What the gas inspector wants to see:
Timeline: 1 to 3 weeks from final install to turn-on, running in parallel with the fire inspection.
Each city regulates exterior signs separately — size, illumination, projection, channel letters versus flat panel, and where on the facade it can sit.
What the sign reviewer wants to see:
Timeline: 4 to 10 weeks. This is the permit that quietly outlasts construction more than any other, which is why we file it in the same week as the building permit, not the week before opening.
A patio is a separate approval, with its own annual cycle in most cities. Toronto's CafeTO program runs through the city, Mississauga and Vaughan handle theirs through their by-law office, and BIAs sometimes have their own overlay rules.
What the patio reviewer wants to see:
Timeline: Variable. Toronto: apply by spring for that summer's service. The lower bound is roughly 4 weeks once the application is complete; the upper bound depends on whether the city is processing the annual batch.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario — the provincial liquor licensing body — handles liquor licenses. Once you have your municipal occupancy permit, you can apply.
What the liquor licensing body wants to see:
Timeline: 8 to 16 weeks. This is the longest single-track approval on your list, which is why it goes in the day your lease is signed, not the week before opening. We've laid out the full opening sequence in our restaurant build-out timeline from lease to opening.
Every city issues a business license for restaurants — Toronto's Eating Establishment Class, equivalents in Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Oakville. It's the last formal step.
Timeline: 1 to 3 weeks once public health and fire are signed off. The license issues against those clearances.
This is what we plan around on every project — and what we'd tell any operator running it themselves:
We aim for the short end of each city's permit window by submitting a complete package the first time. That's the goal on every job — not a guarantee, but a process. You can see how the timelines actually compare across GTA cities and the projects we've delivered for a sense of what that looks like in practice.
Every one of these is a real failure mode we design out at the pre-construction stage:
Q: Do I need a permit if I'm just refreshing finishes? A: If you're only painting, swapping seating, and updating signage that fits the existing sign permit, you usually don't need a building permit. The moment you touch plumbing, electrical, the hood, a wall, or the washroom layout, you do. When in doubt, the city's customer-service line will tell you in five minutes — and if you're changing the cooking line at all, public health needs to see the plan regardless.
Q: How much can I save by submitting in parallel instead of sequentially? A: 4 to 8 weeks on a typical GTA restaurant. Liquor alone is 8 to 16 weeks; if you start it the day you sign the lease instead of the week construction wraps, you've already moved your opening forward by months. Sign permits add another 4 to 10 weeks if you wait. Parallel filing is the single biggest schedule lever an operator has.
Q: Will my Mississauga liquor license transfer to a Toronto location? A: No — a liquor license is tied to the specific premises. When you open a second location or move, the new address goes through its own application with the provincial liquor licensing body. The owner background check carries over, which speeds the new application, but the address-level approval is fresh every time.
Q: Can I start demo before the building permit is issued? A: No. Demolition that touches anything structural, mechanical, electrical, or plumbing requires the permit first. Cosmetic demo — pulling old furniture, taking down decor — is usually fine, but anything past that risks an order to comply and a fine, and the city does drive past restaurant projects in progress.
Q: How long does the public health pre-opening inspection take to book? A: 1 to 2 weeks of lead time in Toronto, Peel, and York. We book it the moment we have a credible opening date, then push the date if we slip — which is faster than booking late and waiting for the next slot.
Q: Do I need a separate permit for my hood? A: The hood is part of the building permit, not its own application. The fire inspector signs off the hood and the suppression at the pre-opening walk, and the gas inspector signs off any gas connected to the equipment under it. The work itself flows through the building permit your architect filed.
Q: What if my landlord says the space is "restaurant-ready"? A: That phrase means different things to different landlords. We've walked spaces called restaurant-ready that had no grease interceptor, an electrical service too small for a real cooking line, and a hood that wouldn't pass a fire walk. Read the work letter, then walk the space with a contractor before you sign — every assumption you make at lease signing is a number on your bill later.
Q: Does Buildup file the permits, or does my architect? A: The architect's stamp goes on the drawings; we coordinate the package, file with the city, track every reviewer comment, and run the inspections through to final occupancy. That's the pre-construction and permit coordination service — one person owning the seven agencies so you're running your business, not chasing inboxes. More on how the work splits is on our FAQ page.
The right permit plan depends on which city you're in, what the previous tenant left behind, and what your concept needs from the cooking line. Send us the address and the menu and we'll come back with a timeline keyed to the seven approvals — or call 647-477-7999 or tell us about your project and we'll schedule a site walk this week. Email info@buildupcontracting.ca.