Permits & Compliance

Permits are not one process. They are five or six parallel processes run by different authorities who do not talk to each other, each with its own queue, its own reviewer and its own idea of what a complete submission looks like.

Building permit sits with the municipality. Food safety sits with the regional public health unit. Gas-fired equipment sits with TSSA. Electrical sits with ESA. Fire suppression sits with the local fire prevention office. Occupancy depends on most of the others closing first.

Run them in sequence and you add months. Run them in parallel without understanding the dependencies and you get a fire inspection booked against a suppression system that has not been commissioned.

What we actually do

We prepare and submit the applications, and then we own the follow-through — which is the part that consumes the time.

Plan review almost always comes back with comments. Sometimes it is a genuine code issue. Frequently it is a request for clarification that a well-annotated drawing should have pre-empted. Either way somebody has to turn the response around quickly, because the file goes back into the queue at whatever position the reviewer’s workload dictates.

That is the difference between a permit that lands in five weeks and one that lands in eleven. Not the initial submission. The turnaround on comments.

Change of use is the one that surprises people

If the space was previously retail, an office, or anything other than a restaurant, converting it is a change of use under the Ontario Building Code. That can trigger requirements the previous tenant never faced — barrier-free washrooms, occupancy load calculations, exiting, sometimes structural or fire separation work.

It is entirely manageable. It is not manageable if you discover it after signing a lease and budgeting for a cosmetic refresh. We check this during the planning stage, before the lease is signed, precisely because it is so often the thing that breaks a budget.

On speeding things up

We will not promise to accelerate a municipal queue, because nobody can. Approval timelines belong to the reviewing office.

What experience actually buys you is a submission that is complete the first time, comments answered within days instead of weeks, and enough familiarity with how a given office reads a set to anticipate the questions before they are asked. That is where the weeks are won.

What you receive

A compliance matrix listing every approval the project needs — the authority, the application status, and what each one blocks

A filed copy of every application — building, public health, fire, TSSA and ESA — each carrying the authority's file or reference number, so you can quote a number when you call the office

The public health unit plan review submission: menu, equipment schedule, finish schedule, sink and handwash layout

A comment-response log for each authority: the reviewer's comment, the written answer that went back, and the revised drawing sheet it points to

An inspection booking schedule tied to the construction sequence, plus the signed inspection records as each one closes

A final approvals package — issued permits, occupancy permit, health pre-opening approval, TSSA and ESA records — in one labelled digital file

What we need from you

A signed lease or purchase agreement, plus a letter from the landlord authorizing permit applications on the property

The final menu and the cooking method for each item. Hood type, make-up air and health requirements are set by the cooking process, not by the floor plan.

Equipment cut sheets from your supplier showing CSA or NSF certification and gas input ratings

Owner signatures returned quickly — most applications need a signature from the applicant, and the file sits until it arrives

Not included

The permit and application fees themselves. Those are paid at posted rates to the municipality, public health unit, TSSA, ESA and fire office, in your name.

Professional seals. Structural, mechanical and electrical drawings are stamped by the licensed engineers on the project, and that engineering work is billed separately from permit handling.

AGCO liquor licence applications, food handler certification and business registration. We flag the timing so they are not the last thing standing, but you file them.

Questions about this service

Whose name is on the permit — mine or NHFC's?

Yours. The permit is issued to the property owner or the business as applicant. We act as authorized agent on a signed letter, which lets us file, answer reviewer comments and book inspections without you standing at a counter. Fees are paid by you at the authority's posted rate. The obligations that come with the permit, including closing it out, stay with the permit holder.

Can we start demolition or construction while the permit is still under review?

Not on permitted work. Building before issuance risks a stop-work order and a demand to uncover finished work for inspection. Some municipalities will issue a separate limited permit for interior strip-out or demolition, which clears the space while the main review runs. We ask that question at the first counter meeting and give you the answer before you book trades.

The unit was already a restaurant. Do the previous approvals carry over?

No. Approvals attach to the work and the operator, not the address. A new operator needs public health plan review and a pre-opening inspection under their own file. Change the cooking — adding gas, deep frying, or solid fuel — and you trigger building permit, TSSA and fire review as well, even where the hood and the layout stay exactly as they are.