How to Start a Food Truck in Calgary
Start a food truck in Calgary: the Full Service Food Vehicle licence at $953 new, the Alberta Health Services food handling permit, the $2 million insurance, and where a truck may and may not trade.
How to Start a Food Truck in Winnipeg
Winnipeg has required no City licence for food handling establishments since April 1, 2015. A food truck runs on a Manitoba health permit, Winnipeg's certified food handler rule, a fire safety inspection, and a Winnipeg Parking Authority mobile vendor permit for City lots and streets.
Applies in: Manitoba
The short answer
Winnipeg is the unusual case: the City licence most food businesses expect does not exist here. The City of Winnipeg states that as of April 1, 2015, no City of Winnipeg licence is required for food handling establishments. A Winnipeg food truck is built instead on a Manitoba health permit — register the establishment and get the permit from a public health inspector before operating — plus technical approvals for the unit's electrical and gas equipment, a Winnipeg fire safety inspection, the City's certified food handler rule, and a Winnipeg Parking Authority mobile vendor permit for City lots and streets.
The national food truck guide linked below covers the shared spine. This guide covers Winnipeg and Manitoba only.
Step 1: Register and get the Manitoba health permit
Manitoba Health's rule covers every food handling establishment: any facility or location where food is prepared, stored, or served to the general public, and its list names mobile push carts and food trucks directly. To prepare, sell, or distribute food to the public, you must register your food handling establishment and obtain a permit from your public health inspector before operating.
For a new establishment, the filing is the food handling permit registration form, your menu, and a detailed floor plan, sent to your area public health inspector. Establishments are inspected for compliance with the Food and Food Handling Establishments Regulation under The Public Health Act, and mobile trucks are held to the same provincial requirements as any other restaurant. Temporary food vendors at events register at least 14 days in advance of the event — a deadline worth knowing before festival season, not during it.
One definition shapes where you can trade: a mobile unit does not remain at the same location for more than 14 days at a time, unless a public health inspector approves otherwise.
Step 2: Clear the unit's technical approvals
A food truck is also a machine, and Manitoba inspects it as one. The province's Inspection and Technical Services guide for mobile outdoor food service units requires, before the unit operates:
- field approval for electrical installations, from Inspection and Technical Services,
- an installation inspection of gas equipment, also from Inspection and Technical Services, and
- a valid health permit from Manitoba Health.
Inspection and Technical Services, municipalities, and Manitoba Health all inspect these units. Manitoba Health's own inspections run on a routine and complaint basis against the Food and Food Handling Establishments Regulation.
Step 3: Meet the Winnipeg additions
Three requirements are Winnipeg's, not the province's:
- Certified food handlers. Winnipeg food service establishments must meet the City of Winnipeg's certified food handler requirements, which scale with the number of food handlers working in the establishment and require a certified person on staff or on duty depending on staffing levels.
- Fire safety inspection. A truck operating in Winnipeg needs a fire safety inspection from the city — the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, Fire Prevention Branch.
- A commissary arrangement. Manitoba's mobile food truck guidance works with the commissary model: a food handling establishment where food for off-site sale is prepared, and where food, containers, utensils, equipment, and supplies are stored, labelled, packaged, or cleaned. A truck that cannot do everything on board needs one.
Step 4: Sort parking through the Winnipeg Parking Authority
Where the truck stands is a separate permission from whether it may sell food. The Winnipeg Parking Authority runs mobile vendor programs for City surface lots — its listed lot is at 106 Israel Asper Way — and for on-street parking, and it runs a separate pilot for food trucks on Graham Avenue.
The mechanics are simple and easy to trip over:
- Permits are virtual. Your licence plate acts as your permit, and only one vehicle is allowed per permit.
- The application requires a valid health permit issued under section 3 of the Food and Food Handling Establishments Regulation.
- It is Parking Authority policy that all outstanding fines and charges be paid in full before a parking permit issues. Settle old tickets before you apply, not after a refusal.
What the opened pages do not state
The Manitoba Health page does not publish a fee for the food handling permit, and the City of Winnipeg and Parking Authority pages opened do not publish the mobile vendor parking permit fee, so this guide prints neither. The pages also do not state a processing time for a new-establishment health permit; the one deadline stated is the 14-day advance registration for temporary food vendors at events.
Related guides:
- Food Truck Permits and Licences in Canada — the national permit map for mobile food businesses.
- How to Start a Food Truck in Toronto — Ontario's municipal licence model, the contrast to Winnipeg's no-licence position.
- How to Start a Restaurant in Winnipeg — the fixed-premises Winnipeg route through the same provincial health system.
- How to Start a Bakery in Winnipeg — a Winnipeg food premises under the same Manitoba regulation.
- Starting a Food Truck in Canada Checklist — the Canada-wide checklist these steps sit inside.
Starting a food truck in Winnipeg, in five steps
- Register with Manitoba Health and get the health permitSubmit the food handling permit registration form, your menu, and a detailed floor plan of the unit to your area public health inspector before operating.
- Clear the technical approvals for the unitManitoba's Inspection and Technical Services gives field approval for electrical installations and inspects gas equipment on mobile units.
- Pass the Winnipeg fire safety inspectionTrucks operating in Winnipeg need a fire safety inspection from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, Fire Prevention Branch.
- Meet Winnipeg's certified food handler ruleWinnipeg food service establishments carry a City-specific requirement for certified food handlers on staff, on top of the provincial rules.
- Get a mobile vendor parking permit for City propertyThe Winnipeg Parking Authority runs mobile vendor permits for City surface lots and on-street parking, and the licence plate acts as the permit.
Questions people ask
Do I need a City of Winnipeg business licence for a food truck?
Not a food handling licence. The City of Winnipeg states that as of April 1, 2015, no City of Winnipeg licence is required for food handling establishments, and its food handling establishment category expressly does not govern outdoor mobile vending units the way it governs fixed premises. What a truck still needs from the City side is a Winnipeg Parking Authority mobile vendor permit if it parks on City lots or streets, plus a fire safety inspection.
Who issues the health permit for a Winnipeg food truck?
Manitoba Health, through your area public health inspector. To prepare, sell, or distribute food to the public in Manitoba you must register your food handling establishment and obtain a permit from a public health inspector before operating. For a new establishment you submit the food handling permit registration form, your menu, and a detailed floor plan.
What makes a unit a mobile food truck in Manitoba?
Mobility itself is defined: a mobile unit is a vehicle or trailer that is readily moveable and does not remain at the same location for more than 14 days at any one time, unless a public health inspector approves otherwise. Park in one spot longer than that and you stop fitting the mobile category.
What extra rule does Winnipeg add on food handlers?
A Winnipeg-specific one. Manitoba Health notes that food service establishments in Winnipeg must meet the City of Winnipeg's certified food handler requirements, which are based on the number of food handlers working in the establishment and require a certified person on staff or on duty. Outside Winnipeg, operators confirm expectations with their area public health inspector instead.
How does parking work for a Winnipeg food truck?
Through the Winnipeg Parking Authority's mobile vendor programs, which cover City surface lots and on-street parking. The permits are virtual — your licence plate acts as your permit, one vehicle per permit — and the application asks for a valid health permit issued under the Food and Food Handling Establishments Regulation. Outstanding fines and charges must be paid in full before a parking permit issues.
What approvals does the truck itself need?
Manitoba's Inspection and Technical Services must give field approval for electrical installations and an installation inspection for gas equipment before a mobile outdoor food service unit operates, alongside the Manitoba Health permit. Inside Winnipeg, add the food handler certificate, the fire safety inspection from the Winnipeg Fire Paramedic Service, and the parking permit where the truck uses City property.
Sources
- Government of Manitoba, Food Handling Establishment Inspections and Health Permits — registration and permit before operating, the registration form, menu, and floor plan filing, mobile trucks under the same rules, and the Winnipeg certified food handler note.
- City of Winnipeg, Food Handling Establishment — Business Licence — no City of Winnipeg licence required for food handling establishments as of April 1, 2015.
- Winnipeg Parking Authority, Mobile Vendor Programs — the surface lot and on-street mobile vendor permits, the licence-plate-as-permit rule, and the health permit requirement.
- Government of Manitoba, Inspection and Technical Services GO Guide 05 — Mobile Food Trucks — field approval for electrical installations, gas equipment inspection, and the approvals a unit needs inside Winnipeg.