How to Start a Restaurant in Montreal

The short answer

Occupancy permit first, then the food permit, then the liquor permit — because the liquor permit depends on the occupancy permit. To open a restaurant in Montreal you need three separate permits from three separate bodies: the Ville de Montréal, through your borough, for the occupancy permit (permis d'occupation, also called a certificate of occupancy); the Ministère de l'Agriculture, des Pêcheries et de l'Alimentation du Québec (MAPAQ) for the food permit; and the Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux (RACJ) for the restaurant liquor permit. Montreal is a borough city, so the permit counter that serves you is your borough's, and the fee and the restaurant quota can differ from one borough to the next. This guide walks the Montreal mechanics only. The national restaurant guide covers the parts that are the same everywhere in Canada; nothing in this guide repeats it.

Step 1: Check zoning and the restaurant quota before you sign a lease

Before renting or purchasing a premises to conduct a commercial activity, first make sure the activity of your choice is permitted there. The City's occupancy permit page says so directly, and it adds a Montreal-specific check: in accordance with borough bylaws, a maximum number of bars and restaurants is permitted per street segment. Before you apply for a permit, make sure the quota still allows for a restaurant in the area you are interested in. The City page links to the quota list and to maps of restaurant zones and bar zones. A street that already holds its maximum number of restaurants is a dead end no amount of fit-out spending fixes, so check the quota at the same time as the zoning.

Step 2: Get the occupancy permit from your borough

You must get an occupancy permit, also called a certificate of occupancy, to conduct a commercial or industrial activity in a building for purposes other than housing. The permit is attached to both the occupied establishment and its operator. If you operate a bar or a restaurant, you must get an occupancy permit before you apply for a liquor permit — that ordering is stated on the City page and it is the hinge the rest of the sequence turns on.

The permit remains valid for as long as there is no change of operator and the activities for which it was issued are conducted under the same conditions and on the same premises. A new permit is required if there is a change of operator, a change in the area of the premises, a change in the activities conducted, or if activities are added. In some borough sections the City notes a certificate of occupancy becomes invalid if the occupancy does not take place within three months of the permit issue date, so do not apply months ahead of a fit-out you have not started.

To apply you need an account on the City's service and, because you are applying on behalf of a business, an organization profile. Payment is by credit card (MasterCard or Visa). The documents the City lists include proof of property ownership, authorization from the building owner or co-ownership syndicate, a document certifying the legal existence of the business such as the company charter and declaration of company name, and a layout plan for the premises. A renovation or alteration permit is needed if you plan to carry out work, if the premises have been changed since the last occupancy permit was issued, or if the activity has changed since the last permit. A power of attorney signed by the operator is needed if someone else submits the application for you.

The fee varies by borough: the City page shows different processing fees for different boroughs, with taxes included, and states the fees are non-refundable. This guide gives no single occupancy fee figure because no single figure applies — confirm the fee at your own borough's permit counter. The application can also be made in person at the permit counter, where you pick up the form and send the completed form by postal mail with your payment and the required documents.

Step 3: Apply for the MAPAQ food permit

A restaurant in Quebec needs a food permit from MAPAQ for the premises where food is prepared and sold. The permit is issued under the Food Products Act and its regulation, which sets the fee by permit class: general preparation, general preparation with a buffet, keep hot or cold, and non-profit, each at its own amount. Because the fee depends on the class your restaurant falls in, this guide does not state a single MAPAQ fee — ask MAPAQ which class applies to your operation and confirm the fee for that class before you budget. The permit must be in hand before the business starts operating, and the hygiene of the establishment is put in the care of a person trained as a food establishment manager. MAPAQ inspects food premises, so build the kitchen to the food safety rules before opening rather than after the first inspection.

Name the person responsible for food hygiene

Before the restaurant opens, name the person who will be responsible for controlling hygiene and food safety in the establishment. That person must hold the attestation of training called Gestionnaire d'établissement alimentaire (food establishment manager). It can be you, or a person you trust in the organization.

Then choose one of two coverage options. Option 1: the named person is present during the hours staff are active; if they are not present, at least one employee holding either the Gestionnaire d'établissement alimentaire attestation or the Manipulateur d'aliments (food handler) attestation must be present. Option 2: at least 10% of staff hold a Gestionnaire d'établissement alimentaire or Manipulateur d'aliments attestation — with this option, no attestation holder has to be present on site.

Either way, keep a register in the establishment listing the names of the people holding a food hygiene and food safety attestation, the total number of people assigned to preparing food or cleaning equipment in contact with food, and the name of the person responsible for hygiene and food safety. When a trained person leaves the organization, their name must stay on the register for 12 months.

Step 4: Apply for the RACJ restaurant permit, if you serve alcohol

A restaurant permit from the RACJ 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 those beverages are generally served as an accompaniment to the food. It also authorizes the sale, for take-out or delivery in a sealed container, of alcoholic beverages other than alcohol and spirits if they are sold as an accompaniment to food prepared by the permit holder. A bar permit is the different permit for an establishment whose principal activity is the sale of alcohol; most restaurants want the restaurant permit, not the bar permit.

Every application must be filed using the form prescribed by the RACJ. For a permit authorizing the sale or service of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises, the application must include a detailed plan of the layout of the rooms or terraces where the applicant plans to use the permit, and a document showing the calculation of the number of persons who may be admitted at the same time to each place. The documents must be approved by an engineer, an architect, a professional technologist, or the municipality. An applicant for a restaurant permit must demonstrate that the layout includes the equipment needed to prepare and sell food and is organized with a place intended for the sale and service of food to customers for consumption on the premises, and must file the menu it plans to offer. The holder must keep the equipment in a functional and operational state and have the staff needed to provide food preparation and sales service during the hours when alcoholic beverages are served or sold.

The duties for a restaurant permit, under the Regulation respecting duties and costs payable under the Act respecting liquor permits, are a fixed amount of $674 plus a variable amount of $0.75 multiplied by the number of persons who may be admitted at one time, as determined by the RACJ, up to a maximum of $800. Where the board does not establish the capacity, the variable amount is $50. The duties are payable for the issue of the permit and annually thereafter, and they are adjusted on April 1 of each year based on the Consumer Price Index for Canada. The examination costs for an application made by reason of the alienation or leasing of an establishment are $328.

Remember the sequencing rule from Step 2: you must hold the occupancy permit before you apply for the liquor permit, and the RACJ application also needs the municipal certificate attesting that the establishment complies with the municipal planning bylaws. Get the borough paperwork first.

Step 5: Register the business and set up tax accounts

Before opening, register the business itself with the Registraire des entreprises du Québec (REQ), which assigns the Quebec enterprise number (NEQ), and set up tax accounts with the Canada Revenue Agency and Revenu Québec — Quebec charges QST as well as GST/HST. The steps for the REQ registration are in our How to Register a Business in Quebec guide. These registrations do not substitute for the occupancy permit, the MAPAQ food permit, or the RACJ restaurant permit, and none of those three substitutes for the others.

The order that avoids rework

Check the zoning and the restaurant quota for the street, get the occupancy permit from the borough, apply for the MAPAQ food permit, and then apply for the RACJ restaurant permit with the occupancy permit and the municipal certificate in hand. The expensive mistake is signing a lease on a street whose restaurant quota is full, or applying for a liquor permit before the borough has issued the occupancy permit and having the application wait on paperwork you could have had first.

What the opened pages do not state

Three figures a reader would reasonably want are not stated as single figures on the official pages opened for this guide, so they are not carried here. The City's occupancy permit page lists different fees for different boroughs and no single city-wide fee. The MAPAQ food permit fee depends on the permit class under the Food Products Act regulation, and the opened pages do not state a single restaurant fee. The RACJ pages opened here do not publish a processing time for a restaurant permit application. Confirm the occupancy fee at your borough's permit counter, the MAPAQ fee for your permit class with MAPAQ, and the current RACJ timeline with the RACJ.

Related guides

• How to Start a Restaurant Business in Canada — the national restaurant guide: format, kitchen, suppliers, hiring, and opening routines that are the same everywhere in Canada.
• How to Get a Liquor Licence in Quebec — the Quebec liquor licence guide, for the full RACJ picture beyond the restaurant permit covered here.
• How to Register a Business in Quebec — the REQ registration and the Quebec enterprise number, with the French-language rules that apply to a Montreal business.
• How to Start a Restaurant in Vancouver — the Vancouver restaurant path, a useful comparison for how another city sequences the same three approvals.
• How to Get a Food Handler Certificate in Canada — food handler certification, which sits alongside the food establishment manager training in this guide.
• How to Start a Bakery Business in Canada — the national bakery guide, for readers weighing a bakery against a restaurant.

Sources

• Ville de Montréal, Get an occupancy permit for commercial, industrial or professional activity — the occupancy permit requirement for bars and restaurants, the rule that it must come before the liquor permit, the borough-by-borough fees, the required documents, the validity rule, and the per-street-segment restaurant quotas.
• Légis Québec, Regulation respecting duties and costs payable under the Act respecting liquor permits, chapter P-9.1, r. 3 — the $674 fixed duty for a restaurant permit, the $0.75 per person variable amount up to $800, the $50 amount where capacity is not established, the $328 examination cost on alienation or leasing, and the annual April 1 indexation.
• Légis Québec, Regulation respecting the legal regime applicable to liquor permits, chapter P-9.1, r. 7 — applications on the RACJ's prescribed form, the detailed layout plan and capacity calculation, the restaurant layout and menu requirements, and the duty to keep food preparation equipment and staff in place while alcohol is served.
• Légis Québec, Act respecting liquor permits, chapter P-9.1 — the restaurant permit as the permit for an establishment whose principal activity is preparing and selling food, with alcohol served as an accompaniment to the food, and the bar permit as the separate permit for alcohol as the principal activity.
• Gouvernement du Québec, Types de formation et inscription — the duty to name a person holding the Gestionnaire d'établissement alimentaire attestation, the two coverage options, the 10% rule, and the register of trained staff.