1. Business and location
Confirm the entity, tax accounts, permitted use, construction, fire, signage, accessibility, and local approvals before committing to a site or renovation.
Resources/Restaurant operations
Canada-wide operator library
Canadian restaurant operations guide
Opening and operating a restaurant in Canada can involve federal activity rules, provincial or territorial requirements, a regional health authority, and municipal permits. Start with the correct jurisdiction, verify the official source, then use the practical checklists below to plan people, service, records, and weekly handoff.
- Coverage
- All 13 provinces and territories
- Last reviewed
- 2026-07-30
- Product boundary
- Scheduling and records, not licensing or legal approval
Start in the right place
Separate permit discovery from restaurant operations
A generic restaurant checklist cannot confirm every licence. BizPaL helps identify federal, provincial, territorial, and participating municipal requirements, but its own guidance says the result is not necessarily exhaustive. The CFIA also bases federal food licensing on the activities a business conducts, such as importing or preparing food for interprovincial trade, rather than the word “restaurant” alone.
2. Food and service
Confirm the food-premises authority, plan review, inspection, training, sanitation, alcohol, supplier, import, and activity-specific requirements.
3. People and records
Use the correct employment-standard, workplace-safety, workers’ compensation, payroll, privacy, and recordkeeping sources for the jurisdiction.
Jurisdiction map
Start with the province or territory where the team works
The Nova Scotia, Quebec, and New Brunswick opening guides are now published after their provincial source review. Other restaurant-startup guides remain unpublished until their permit and health-authority evidence passes the same gate. Labour-reference pages remain the owners of overtime, holiday-pay, and meal-break intent.
Open the Nova Scotia restaurant guideOpen the Quebec restaurant guideOpen the New Brunswick restaurant guideAlberta
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
British Columbia
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Manitoba
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
New Brunswick
Opening guide availableUse the source-backed opening sequence, then keep the labour reference beside the staffing plan.
Newfoundland and Labrador
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Nova Scotia
Opening guide availableUse the source-backed opening sequence, then keep the labour reference beside the staffing plan.
Northwest Territories
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Nunavut
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Ontario
Opening guide availableUse the source-backed opening sequence, then keep the labour reference beside the staffing plan.
Prince Edward Island
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Quebec
Opening guide availableUse the source-backed opening sequence, then keep the labour reference beside the staffing plan.
Saskatchewan
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Yukon
Startup guide in reviewUse the current employment-standard reference while the broader permit and operating guide is source-checked.
Operating workflow
Move from opening readiness to a reviewed weekly record
Prepare the room and stations
Use the printable restaurant opening checklist for people, FOH, kitchen, equipment, exceptions, and manager sign-off before service.
Open guideRespond during service
Open first-10-minute playbooks for call-outs, conflict, sold-out items, missed clock-outs, refrigeration outages, and handoffs.
Open guideClose the week cleanly
Review actual hours, breaks, overtime, holidays, tips, exceptions, approval, and the final export before payroll.
Open guideOpen a sushi buffet with an auditable checklist
Map permits, food flow, equipment, suppliers, raw fish, rice, allergens, staffing, dry runs, and operating records.
Open guideControl avocado batches and waste
Separate receiving, ripening quality, refrigerated prep, FIFO, waste reasons, and escalation.
Open guideQualify suppliers and backups
Review specifications, documents, allergens, delivery capability, substitutions, recalls, and a tested fallback.
Open guideAccept, hold, or reject deliveries
Use a source-backed receiving decision and preserve the invoice, lot, temperature, condition, and next action.
Open guideOpen and rehearse a café
Connect equipment, utilities, milk and allergens, suppliers, part-time availability, dry runs, waste, and closing.
Open guideRespond to a refrigeration exception
Verify the reading, isolate affected food, preserve evidence, escalate, repair, and verify before reuse.
Open guideContain a food recall without losing the trail
Match the exact product, stop movement, balance received and remaining quantities, and preserve the direction and disposition record.
Open guideApprove an ingredient substitute before service
Hold the substitute while the label, recipe, cross-contact path, staff reference, permitted uses, and approval window are checked.
Open guideHandle a dietary request from table to pickup
Translate the exact request into current ingredient evidence, a kitchen capability decision, ticket controls, and a verified handoff.
Open guideAudit a gluten-free order path
Check gluten sources, oats, malt, sauces, fryers, toasters, flour, utensils, the ticket, and pickup before accepting.
Open guideSeparate dairy-free, milk allergy, and lactose requests
Verify milk ingredients, substitutes, hot-line and beverage-station contact, limitations, and the final handoff.
Open guideReceive and route shell eggs safely
Connect the supplier, refrigeration, grade, shell condition, lot, storage location, recipe path, and waste decision.
Open guideRespond when the ice path may be contaminated
Stop the affected machine, bin, dispenser, and menu uses while an approved alternate supply and release evidence are established.
Open guideOpen and operate a restaurant in Ontario
Sequence business, municipal, public-health, food-premises, AGCO, WSIB, tax, and pre-opening decisions.
Open guideCanadian labour references
Review the rule before changing the schedule or payroll handoff
Overtime and statutory-holiday rules
Compare the national overview, then open the source-backed page for the correct jurisdiction.
Meal-break rules by province
Review timing, paid-time treatment, exceptions, and the official employment-standard source.
Canadian overtime calculator
Estimate daily and weekly overtime with visible assumptions and source-freshness boundaries.
Restaurant tip pool calculator
Test an hours-based or role-percentage distribution and export exact-cent results for review.
Product boundary
Keep Maxuod Shift in the staffing and record lane
Maxuod Shift can help build a weekly schedule, compare planned and actual hours, review overtime prompts, calculate a tip pool, and export a payroll handoff. It does not select a site, issue a permit, approve a supplier, assess food safety, run payroll, or provide legal advice.
- Verify licences with the issuing government or health authority.
- Keep legal and food-safety decisions out of general schedule notes.
- Record the source, jurisdiction, checked date, and person responsible.
- Recheck requirements before opening, renovating, importing, or changing the menu.
Official source layer
These sources define the national discovery and federal activity boundary. Each future province guide must add its own regulator, health authority, workers’ compensation, alcohol, and municipal sources before publication.