Get a liquor licence in Quebec through the RACJ: pick the right permit class, file form RACJ-1042 with its annexes, pass the background checks, and buy your stock through the SAQ.
Applies in: Quebec
Apply to the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) on form RACJ-1042, with the annexes that fit your business, and do not buy a bottle to sell until the permit is in hand. Quebec runs its own liquor permit system under the Act respecting liquor permits: the permit classes, the application, the background checks, and the fees are all Quebec's, not the federal government's and not another province's. The Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ) is the supply route for nearly everything you will sell. This guide covers the permit process only. It gives no legal advice: if your situation is unusual — a transfer, a shared premises, a lodging facility — the Régie's guide for the application form and the Régie itself are the sources to check.
The Act respecting liquor permits lists seven permit classes: the bar permit, restaurant permit, accessory permit, event permit, grocery permit, cider seller's permit, and winemaking and brewing centre permit. Pick the class that matches what your establishment actually does, because each class authorizes different sales.
A bar permit authorizes, as the principal activity in an establishment, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises. A restaurant permit authorizes, in an establishment whose principal and usual activity is to prepare and sell food on the premises, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises if the beverages are generally served as an accompaniment to the food. A restaurant permit also lets a patron take home a partially consumed container of wine that has been securely resealed, and authorizes the sale, for takeout or delivery in a sealed container, of alcoholic beverages other than alcohol and spirits when sold as an accompaniment to food the permit holder prepared.
An accessory permit authorizes, as a secondary activity, the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises during tourist, social, family, sporting, cultural, or other activities — it fits a business whose main activity is something else. An event permit authorizes the sale or service of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises at the place indicated on the permit, in the cases and on the conditions determined by regulation.
A grocery permit authorizes the sale and delivery, for consumption at a place other than the establishment, of beer and cider, as well as the wines and alcoholic beverages determined by regulation, other than alcohol, spirits, and beer blends containing more than 7% alcohol by volume. A cider seller's permit authorizes the sale of cider for consumption at a place other than the establishment. A winemaking and brewing centre permit authorizes the holder to sell at retail or wholesale specific constituents of beer or wine — malt, malt extracts, grapes, wort or must and concentrates — as well as equipment for the domestic manufacture of beer or wine for personal use.
Permits can also carry options. The Régie may attach a "no minors" option, a "caterer" option, a "service" option, or a "domestic manufacture" option to certain permits. A "no minors" option prohibits the presence of minors at all times at the place where the permit is used. A "caterer" option authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages, served with food the permit holder prepared, at the place where the holder serves the food. A "service" option authorizes the holder to serve patrons alcoholic beverages they brought with them — the "bring your own wine" arrangement. The application form also lists an exclusive caterer option. Choose the options on the form; do not assume they can be added later without a fresh application step.
If you make alcohol rather than selling it, you do not use form RACJ-1042. Manufacturing permits are issued under the Act respecting the Société des alcools du Québec, and the duties are set in a separate regulation. The Regulation respecting the duties and costs payable under the Act respecting the Société des alcools du Québec sets the duties, indexed as of April 1, 2026: a distiller's permit costs $8,960 where production is more than 3,000 hectolitres, and $4,481 where it is 3,000 hectolitres or less; a wine maker's permit and a cider maker's permit each cost $1,787; a warehouse permit costs $360; a home production permit, a small-scale beer producer's permit, or an artisan producers cooperative permit each cost $447; a brewer's permit costs $4,481 for a first application or a transfer, and then $4,481 a year where the holder's annual volume of worldwide sales is 200,000 hectolitres or less, or $8,960 where it is more. A beer distributor's permit follows the same $4,481 and $8,960 scale.
The examination cost for a manufacturing permit application is $169 where the application does not have to be published, or $335 where it must be published. Duties and costs under this regulation are adjusted on April 1 of each year, based on the percentage change in the All-Items Consumer Price Index for Canada for the preceding year. A brewer also needs a federal brewer's licence from the Canada Revenue Agency before manufacturing for sale — that is a separate application, not a Quebec permit.
File form RACJ-1042, Demande de permis d'alcool, using the Régie's guide for filling out a liquor permit application alongside it. The form covers the categories of bar, restaurant, accessory, grocery, and cider seller. Attach the annexes that apply to you: Annex A, information on the permit applicant; Annex A.1, information on the partners, shareholders, directors, and the person in charge of administering the business; Annex A.2, information on legal persons identified as shareholders; Annex B, an application for a video lottery site operator licence, only if you want one; and Annex C, the list of documents to attach to the application.
The form asks for the applicant's details, including the Quebec enterprise number (NEQ), the establishment's name and address, and the person in charge of administering the business — and you must tell the Régie of any change to that person within 10 days. For each permit category you request, state whether the operating period is annual or seasonal. A seasonal period must not exceed 183 days. State the locations inside the establishment where the permit will be used: for a bar, the basement, ground floor, upper floors, or terrace; for a restaurant, the common dining area, an area near a pool, or another area. For a grocery permit, complete the food inventory in section 6 of the form; you may send the inventory after transmitting the application.
The authorized hours are printed on the form: bar, restaurant, and accessory permits run every day from 8 a.m. to 3 a.m. the next day, with accessory permits limited to the normal operating hours of the principal activity; grocery permits run every day from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m.; cider seller permits run every day from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m.
Send the application and the required documents by email to demande.permisalcool@racj.gouv.qc.ca or by post to the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux. The Régie's telephone numbers are 418 643-7667 in Quebec City, 514 873-3577 in Montreal, and 1 800 363-0320 elsewhere in Quebec. If someone other than a director or partner named in the enterprise register will represent you before the Régie, complete and sign the procuration form RACJ-9160.
The Régie examines the people behind the application, not just the premises. Every administrator, partner, person responsible for administering the establishment, and shareholder holding 10% or more of the voting shares must complete Annex A.1. That annex asks whether a liquor permit the person held or administered was ever suspended or revoked by the Régie, whether the person has ever been found guilty or pleaded guilty to an offence, and whether the person has been found guilty of a criminal act in the last five years. The form's privacy notice states that the personal information collected may be used for inspection, investigation, or background checks. Answer these questions truthfully: a false declaration is worse than a disclosed history the Régie can weigh.
The Act also sets what the application itself must show. The applicant must give the address of the establishment and specify each room, terrace, or other place where the permit is to be used, file a detailed floor plan of the rooms and terraces where the permit is to be used if the application is for a permit authorizing consumption on the premises, and produce, at the Régie's request and within the time it sets, any other document relevant to the examination of the application, including documents about the sources of financing of the activities or the establishment. A lodging facility must also provide proof of registration under the Tourist Accommodation Act, and may ask for minibar and vending machine authorizations and for common areas where consumption is permitted.
The duties for permits under the Act respecting liquor permits are set in the Regulation respecting duties and costs payable under the Act respecting liquor permits, as published by the Québec Official Publisher and updated October 24, 2025. The fixed amounts are: bar permit $674, restaurant permit $674, accessory permit $395, grocery permit $198, winemaking and brewing centre permit $198, and cider seller's permit $198. These fixed amounts are payable for the issue of the permit and annually after that.
On top of the fixed amount, bar, restaurant, and accessory permits carry a variable amount of $0.75 multiplied by the number of persons who may be admitted at one time, as determined by the Régie, up to a maximum of $800. Where the Régie does not set a capacity, the amount payable is $50. The variable amount does not apply to a grocery permit, a winemaking and brewing centre permit, or a cider seller's permit.
The examination cost for an application under section 95 of the Act is $166. Where the application is made because the establishment was sold or leased, the examination cost is $328. Duties and costs under this regulation are adjusted on April 1 of each year, based on the percentage change in the All-Items Consumer Price Index for Canada for the preceding year, and the adjustment can never be less than zero. For a seasonal operating period, the duties are reduced in proportion to the number of days the permit is not used.
Work out the total before you apply: a restaurant permit for a room the Régie sets at 100 persons costs $674 plus $75, or $749, plus the $166 examination cost. Confirm the current amounts with the Régie before you pay, because the April 1 indexation moves them every year.
Once you hold a permit, your supply route is fixed by law. The Act states that the holder of a permit authorizing alcoholic beverages to be sold or served may only have in the establishment alcoholic beverages acquired, in accordance with the permit, from the Société des alcools du Québec or from the holder of a small-scale production permit, a brewer's permit, a beer distributor's permit, or a cider maker's permit issued under the Act respecting the Société des alcools du Québec, or from an agent of such a permit holder. In practice, that means the SAQ is your supplier for wine and spirits, and Quebec brewers, cider makers, and small-scale producers are the other lawful source for their own products. Buying from any other source puts the permit at risk.
A grocery permit holder's stock is narrower still: beer, cider, and the wines and alcoholic beverages determined by regulation, other than alcohol, spirits, and beer blends containing more than 7% alcohol by volume, for consumption elsewhere than on the premises. A grocery permit also authorizes free tasting in the establishment of the alcoholic beverages the holder is authorized to sell, on the conditions determined by regulation.
A permit is issued to the operator, not to the address. When an establishment is sold or leased, the new operator files a new application — the regulation's $328 examination cost for applications made because of a sale or lease is the marker of that. The form covers the transfer cases directly: total or partial transfer by purchase, lease, or repossession, death of the holder with temporary operation by the estate, and bankruptcy with operation by a liquidator, trustee, or receiver.
Tell the Régie of any change within 10 days — that duty is printed on the form for the person in charge of administering the business, and it applies to the application details generally. You can also use the form to change the place where the permit is used, add or remove a permit category or a location, change the operating period, change the category of a permit, or add or remove an authorization such as dancing or film projection for persons 18 and over. The duties to obtain or renew a temporary authorization to use a permit, or a temporary or permanent authorization to change the place where the permit is used, are $166.
If you sell in Quebec, check your GST and QST registration obligations with the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec as part of setting up the business, and register the business itself with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec so you have the NEQ the permit application asks for.
The opened official pages do not state processing times for a liquor permit application, so this guide gives none. Third-party tables that quote 40 to 105 days by permit class were not carried, because they do not come from an opened official page. The opened pages also do not state the SAQ's account-opening steps for a new permit holder, so this guide does not walk them — ask the SAQ once the permit is issued. The retail permit duties are given as published in the regulation updated October 24, 2025; because those duties are indexed each April 1, confirm the current amounts with the Régie before you pay.
The Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) issues liquor permits in Quebec under the Act respecting liquor permits. You apply to the Régie on its form RACJ-1042, Demande de permis d'alcool, with the annexes that fit your situation. The Régie can be reached at 418 643-7667 in Quebec City, 514 873-3577 in Montreal, or 1 800 363-0320 elsewhere in Quebec.
The Act respecting liquor permits lists seven classes: the bar permit, restaurant permit, accessory permit, event permit, grocery permit, cider seller's permit, and winemaking and brewing centre permit. A bar permit authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises as the principal activity. A restaurant permit authorizes the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises in an establishment whose principal and usual activity is preparing and selling food. A grocery permit authorizes the sale of beer, cider, and certain wines for consumption elsewhere than on the premises. Manufacturing permits, such as a brewer's permit or a small-scale beer producer's permit, are issued under a different law, the Act respecting the Société des alcools du Québec.
Complete form RACJ-1042 and the annexes that apply: Annex A with information on the permit applicant, Annex A.1 for each partner, shareholder, director, and person in charge of administering the business, Annex A.2 for legal persons identified as shareholders, and Annex C, the list of documents to attach. You need your Quebec enterprise number (NEQ) and the address of the establishment, and you must name the person in charge of administering the business. Send the application and the required documents by email to demande.permisalcool@racj.gouv.qc.ca or by post to the Régie. Use the Régie's guide for filling out the application alongside the form.
Each person named in Annex A.1 must declare whether a liquor permit they held or administered was ever suspended or revoked by the Régie, whether they have ever been found guilty or pleaded guilty to an offence, and whether they have been found guilty of a criminal act in the last five years. The form states that the personal information collected may be used for inspection, investigation, or background checks. The Act also requires the applicant to give the address of the establishment, specify each room, terrace, or other place where the permit will be used, file a detailed floor plan for permits authorizing consumption on the premises, and produce any other document the Régie asks for, including documents about the sources of financing.
The duties are set by regulation and indexed each April 1. For a bar permit or a restaurant permit, the fixed duty is $674, plus a variable amount of $0.75 multiplied by the number of persons who may be admitted at one time, up to a maximum of $800. An accessory permit carries a fixed duty of $395. A grocery permit, a winemaking and brewing centre permit, and a cider seller's permit each carry a fixed duty of $198. The examination cost for an application is $166, or $328 where the application is made because the establishment was sold or leased. These figures are as published in the regulation updated October 24, 2025, so confirm the current amounts with the Régie before you pay.
From the Société des alcools du Québec (SAQ), or from the holder of a small-scale production permit, a brewer's permit, a beer distributor's permit, or a cider maker's permit. The Act respecting liquor permits states that a permit holder may only have in the establishment alcohol acquired in accordance with the permit from the SAQ or from one of those permit holders. A grocery permit holder may sell beer, cider, and the wines and alcoholic beverages determined by regulation, other than alcohol, spirits, and beer blends containing more than 7% alcohol by volume, for consumption elsewhere than on the premises.