To my fellow Canadian bakers, does anyone know where to start with getting legal in BC?

The Dept of Agriculture doesn't handle this, the public health dept doesn't handle it and I haven't heard back from my city yet.

Thanks.

Here in Calgary the city grants the business license and the heath dept comes out and inspects your kitchen and passes it so you need to contact them.Once your kitchen is passed the business license is fairly simple.You also have to produce a copy of your floor plan etc if you are building in a home etc...or at least I did many years ago..

I went to the health dept they told me what I had to do in fact I was given info to check out church kitchens which I found one and worked there first before I opend my shop. Once I found a place the health dept came to inspect and they notifyed the city and I was issued a business licience. When the shop opened I had to draw out my kitchen plan and have it approved then it was inspected and away I went. I worked in bakeries for quite awhile so I know what was needed for equipment. I have a friend that has a beef jerky shop and he told me what I had to do so that helped alot. Took about 2 weeks and I was ready to go. Where are you located in western canada.

I am having a hard time finding out about this too. I am wanting more info on a home based business as I would not be able to open a shop for a while now. Could you let me know if you find anything? Where in B.C. are you? I am in Victoria and will be contacting my city via phone tomorrow.

You really need to rely on information you obtain locally, rather than what someone here tells you, since the rules vary from province to province, and possibly even city to city (I'm not even sure about that....)

You need to call your local health inspector AND city business licensing office (I don't think the Dept of Ag have anything to do with it...). Don't rely on what one person tells you. It is wrong if you've been told that the health dept has nothing to do with it, because they will be involved when it comes to approving plans and doing actual inspections.

From my experience of wanting to build a separate commercial kitchen at home, nobody knew who was responsible -- the commercial people didn't want to deal with me because the business was in a residence, but the residential people wouldn't talk to me because it was a business! I sat on HOLD a lot!! You will need to be persistent, and be prepared to call back and speak to someone else for a second opinion. I was told several times that it was not possible to have a legal second kitchen in my home, but now I have one.

Good luck!

Agree with above poster, the city would know best, as it varies so much. It is really hard to find the information online, on the government sites, best to call the city about it.

For smaller areas it's usually it's found in the bylaws for each city or town. Find your city or Towns web page and look under the bylaw section. Most smaller towns in Canada legalize homebased kitchens quite easily. hth - that has been my experience anyway. A $50.00 application fee, it's printed in the local paper for 10 days to see if there any residents opposing the request. Then $10.00 for the actual license. HTH

Thanks hynest, I'm gonna look into that - I'm in the suburbs of Montreal