Published: April 25, 2026 · Last reviewed: April 2026 · Reviewed by: Buildup Contracting Pre-Construction Team · Service area: Toronto & GTA
This article is for planning purposes only. Cost, timeline, permit, code, gas, grease trap, public health, and accessibility requirements vary by project scope, municipality, landlord, site condition, engineering, equipment list, and current trade and supplier availability. Confirm specific requirements with the municipality, architect, engineer, landlord, public health unit, fire reviewer, AGCO, registered or certified fuels contractor, electrical contractor, or other applicable authorities.
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. Buildup coordinates the construction-side work; the permit applications themselves are submitted by your architect or permit consultant. The numbers in this guide are planning estimates that vary by site, municipality, supplier availability, and trade scheduling.
A note before you start reading any timeline below: municipal first-review timelines are not the same as total permit-in-hand timelines. A complete application may receive a first review within the municipality's published service standard, but resubmissions, zoning issues, missing drawings, mechanical coordination, landlord approvals, and consultant revisions can extend the total timeline. Treat the ranges in this guide as planning observations, not commitments.
This guide walks through every permit you need in 2026, who issues it, what reviewers want to see in the first submission, and where things tend to bog down so you can plan around them.
A municipal business licence follows once health and fire are clean — count it as the eighth, but it's an administrative step that depends on the rest being in place, not an automatic add-on.
Every permit on this list is influenced by what's already in the space. A space without a grease interceptor, without enough electrical capacity, without rooftop room for fresh-air equipment, or sitting under a residential unit with sound restrictions — those are all permit-relevant facts you want to know before the lease is signed. If you're early in lease talks, our notes on restaurant lease negotiation and the work letter cover what to ask for at that stage, and our restaurant build-out timeline from lease to opening shows where each permit lands in the overall sequence.
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 city's plan reviewer reads your drawings, confirms the layout meets 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: Toronto, for example, publishes review streams and target first-review windows for tenant improvements. Plan on a few weeks for first review on a complete package; resubmissions add time per round. Remember the disclaimer at the top — first-review service standards are not the same as total permit-in-hand timelines.
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. 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 conducts 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 well before opening — a few weeks of lead time is the practical minimum, more if the layout is complex. The pre-opening inspection is booked with 1 to 2 weeks of lead time once you have a credible opening date.
Practical note: The fastest way to fail this inspection is to bring in equipment that isn't food-rated to save money on Facebook Marketplace. The inspector will flag it on sight, and you'll be replacing it the week you wanted to be training staff. Toronto Public Health publishes a Starting a Food Business guide that covers what they look at; other regions follow similar logic.
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 a couple of weeks; the inspector's pre-opening walk is booked alongside public health, usually a week or two before opening. These are planning observations, not commitments.
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 commercial kitchen ventilation in Ontario guide and the grease hood vs vapor hood decision.
Gas work must be handled by properly registered/certified fuels contractors or gas technicians. Depending on the scope, inspections and approvals may involve the utility, TSSA requirements, applicable fuel safety regulations, and the project's mechanical design.
What that means in practice for a restaurant:
Don't pin a single timeline on gas. Confirm scope, then sequence inspections around the construction schedule with the contractor doing the work.
Each city regulates exterior signs separately — size, illumination, projection, channel letters versus flat panel, and where on the facade it can sit. BIAs sometimes layer additional rules.
What the sign reviewer wants to see:
Timeline: Sign permits commonly take several weeks. This is the permit that quietly outlasts construction more than any other, which is why it's worth filing 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 bylaw office, and BIAs sometimes have their own overlay rules.
What the patio reviewer wants to see:
Timeline: Variable and seasonal. In Toronto, apply by spring for that summer's service. The window depends on whether the city is processing the annual batch, so file early if a patio is part of your concept.
The Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario (AGCO) is the provincial licensing body for liquor sales.
Start AGCO planning early once the premises details, floor plan, and business concept are known. The ability to operate and serve alcohol depends on AGCO requirements as well as municipal, fire, health, occupancy, zoning, and licensing requirements. Confirm the current AGCO application requirements before filing.
What the AGCO application typically involves:
Timeline: Confirm current AGCO timelines before filing — they vary based on municipal review, business type, and AGCO workload. Treat AGCO planning as a parallel track, not a sequential one.
Every city issues a business licence for restaurants — Toronto's Eating or Drinking Establishment licence (city page here), with equivalents in Mississauga, Vaughan, Markham, Richmond Hill, Brampton, Oakville.
Business licensing is often one of the final administrative steps before opening, but it is not automatic. Requirements vary by municipality and may include zoning review, occupancy, health/fire clearances, fees, documentation, and other municipal approvals.
Toronto's overarching business regulations and licences page is a useful starting point. Confirm what your municipality requires for your business type and address — don't assume the list is identical city to city.
This is what we plan around on every project, and what we'd tell any operator running it themselves:
Patterns we plan around at the pre-construction stage:
We coordinate with your architect and permit consultant so the construction-side details — mechanical, fire-suppression, plumbing, electrical, gas — match the city's expectations on first review. The architect's stamp goes on the drawings; your permit consultant or architect submits the application; we coordinate the construction-side details, run the trades against the approved drawings, and run the inspections through to final occupancy. That's the pre-construction and permit coordination service. You can see what we've delivered for a sense of how that plays out across GTA restaurant projects, and how cities compare in our GTA restaurant permit timelines compared and Toronto-specific permit guide.
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. 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: Weeks, sometimes months, on a typical GTA restaurant. AGCO planning, sign permits, and patio approvals are all slow individually; running them sequentially adds those weeks to your opening date. Parallel filing is the single biggest schedule lever an operator has — but remember that first-review service standards aren't the same as total permit-in-hand timelines, and resubmissions extend either path.
Q: Will my Mississauga liquor licence transfer to a Toronto location? A: No — an AGCO liquor sales licence is tied to the specific premises. When you open a second location or move, the new address goes through its own application. The owner background check carries over, which speeds the new application, but the address-level approval is fresh every time. Confirm current AGCO application requirements before filing.
Q: Can I start demolition 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.
Q: How long does the public health pre-opening inspection take to book? A: Plan on 1 to 2 weeks of lead time in Toronto, Peel, and York. Book it the moment you have a credible opening date, then push the date if the schedule slips — that's 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 any gas work to appliances under the hood is handled by your fuels contractor or gas technician with the appropriate inspections and approvals.
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 permit applications themselves are submitted by your architect or permit consultant — their stamp goes on the drawings. Buildup coordinates the construction-side work so the mechanical, fire-suppression, plumbing, electrical, and gas details match the approved drawings, and we run the inspections through to final occupancy. 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 coordinated construction-side plan keyed to the seven approvals — call 647-477-7999 or tell us about your project and we'll schedule a site walk this week. Email info@buildupcontracting.ca.