How to start a home bakery in Canada: provincial rules, business number, GST/HST and your first month

To start a home bakery in Canada, start with your province, because provinces, not Ottawa, decide whether you can bake for sale at home. In Ontario you tell your local public health unit you are a new food operator. In Alberta, low-risk home-prepared food needs no permit but must carry a home-kitchen label. In Quebec you need a MAPAQ permit, mandatory food hygiene training, and you can produce no more than 100 kg of food a month in a home kitchen. British Columbia allows lower-risk home baking at temporary food markets; anything else goes through your regional health authority. Federally, you need a CRA business number only when you register for a program account such as GST/HST, which becomes compulsory once taxable sales pass $30,000 over four consecutive calendar quarters. Many whole cakes and multi-packs of six or more single servings are zero-rated.

Every province and the restrictions on each are in home baking laws by state and country; the questions to ask your health unit are in do I need a license to sell cakes from home. Check with your local public health unit or provincial agency before you rely on any step here.

Step 1: sort your menu into low-risk and everything else

Every province draws the same line: foods that need refrigeration. Ontario's Ministry of Health lists as low-risk most breads and buns without meat or cream filling, most baked goods with no custard, cakes with icing that does not need refrigeration, brownies, muffins and cookies. Cheesecake, custard, whipped cream and cream cheese fillings fall outside that list nearly everywhere, and in some provinces outside home baking altogether.

Write your launch menu as low-risk only if you can. It is the difference between a phone call and a permit process in most provinces.

Step 2: follow your province's route

Ontario

1. Decide what you will sell, using the low-risk list.
2. Contact your local public health unit and tell them you are a new food operator. They will advise on food safety for your specific menu.
3. Expect periodic inspection under the Food Premises Regulation.
4. Low-risk-only businesses are exempt from dedicated handwashing stations, commercial dishwashing requirements and food handler training certification.

The Ministry also tells home businesses to check municipal zoning by-laws, permits and licensing before calling public health. Do that first; a zoning problem ends the conversation.

British Columbia

BC has no general home-bakery permit. Under the BC Centre for Disease Control guideline for temporary food markets, vendors of lower-risk foods, including cakes with icing-sugar icing and no dairy or whipped cream, do not have to apply to their health authority before selling at a market. Selling from home, online or to shops is a different matter: ask your regional health authority, and expect to need an approved premises such as a rented commercial kitchen.

Alberta

Alberta is the most open. Low-risk home-prepared foods that do not need refrigeration can be sold from home, online, by mail order, at special events and at farmers' markets, with no permit. The conditions:

• they cannot be resold
• the label must give information about the food and the producer
• the label must state that the food was prepared in a home kitchen that is not subject to inspection, and is not for resale

Alberta encourages, but does not require, food safety training. Alberta Health Services answers specific questions.

Quebec

Quebec is the strictest of the four:

1. Get the appropriate MAPAQ permit for retail sale or food service.
2. Complete the mandatory food hygiene and safety training.
3. Expect an inspector to check your facilities before and during operation.
4. Stay under 100 kg of food produced per month in a home kitchen; above that you need dedicated premises.
5. Sell direct to the consumer only, with no wholesale or resale through an intermediary.

Permit fees are set by MAPAQ and are not on the home-food page; check the retail and food service permits page.

Elsewhere

Manitoba does not permit home-based food businesses beyond shelf-stable food at farmers' markets, craft sales and bake sales. Nova Scotia allows low-risk home-baked goods without a permit, sold direct. Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, PEI and Newfoundland and Labrador each have their own route; the laws table links each one.

Step 3: register a business name

If you sell under your own name, there is usually nothing to register. A trading name such as "Northern Crumb Bakery" is registered with your province (ServiceOntario in Ontario, the Registraire des entreprises in Quebec, and so on). Fees and renewal periods are provincial; check your province's business registry.

Step 4: CRA business number and GST/HST

You need a business number (BN) when you register for a CRA program account, such as GST/HST, or incorporate. A sole proprietor below the GST/HST threshold may not need one at all. Since November 3, 2025, new BN and program account registrations are done online, and the BN arrives instantly.

You are a small supplier, and do not have to register for GST/HST, while your worldwide taxable sales are $30,000 or less in a single calendar quarter and over the last four consecutive calendar quarters. Go over that and you must register within 29 days. You can register voluntarily below the threshold, but you then stay registered for at least a year.

Which bakery sales are taxable matters even before you register, because it decides how your prices change when you do. Under the CRA's basic groceries rules:

• Zero-rated: plain bread, bagels, rolls and croissants without sweet filling or coating; a whole cake or other item weighing 230 g or more; a package of six or more single servings, such as a dozen cookies or a box of six cupcakes. A wedding cake supplied by the decorator is zero-rated when it weighs at least 230 g.
• Taxable: cakes, muffins, pies, pastries, tarts, cookies, doughnuts, brownies and sweet-filled croissants sold as single servings (under 230 g) in quantities of fewer than six. Catering, where you deliver and arrange or serve the food, is treated differently.

So a baker selling a single cookie and a dozen cookies charges tax on one and not the other. Price your singles with that in mind.

Report your bakery profit on your personal income tax return as business income, and keep every receipt for ingredients, packaging and equipment.

Step 5: labels and allergens

Canada's priority food allergens are eggs, milk, mustard, peanuts, crustaceans and molluscs, fish, sesame seeds, soy, sulphites, tree nuts, and wheat and triticale, plus gluten sources. Pre-packaged foods must list ingredients in decreasing order and identify these allergens by their common names. Your province then adds its own lines; Alberta's home-kitchen statement is the obvious one. Keep a written allergen list for every unpackaged product too, because customers will ask and inspectors will check.

Step 6: food safety training

The rule depends on your province. Quebec makes hygiene training mandatory. Ontario exempts low-risk-only home businesses from food handler certification, and that exemption ends once you go beyond low-risk. Alberta encourages it. Elsewhere, ask your health unit. A recognised food handler course is a small cost and the first thing a market organiser asks about.

Step 7: insurance

Markets and venues usually require a commercial general liability certificate (including product liability) before you can set up. Tell your home insurer you run a business from home, since many policies exclude it. If you hire, check your province's workers' compensation board rules. Prices vary by province and product mix; get quotes from a broker who writes food businesses.

Step 8: price your first products

Cost everything from what you paid: ingredients, packaging, your hours at a wage you would accept, then margin. Then check the GST/HST rule above, because selling cookies by the half-dozen instead of singly can keep a product zero-rated. Worked examples in Canadian dollars: cake prices by country, cake pricing calculator, how to price cookies for a cookie business and how to price sourdough bread.

Step 9: orders, deposits and winter

Write your order terms first: lead time, deposit, balance date, cancellation, pickup or delivery. For custom cakes, 50 percent at booking and the balance 7 to 14 days before the event is the common structure (see how much deposit for a custom cake). Canadian winters add one clause to your terms: what happens if a storm stops a delivery or pickup. See delivering cakes in winter.

Your first-month checklist

Where ibakepro fits

ibakepro is bakery management software for Canadian bakers, from a home kitchen working under a provincial permit to bakeries with staff and more than one location. Tax is set by product category, so a single cinnamon bun can sit in a taxable category and the box of six in a zero-rated one, and once you register you enter your GST or HST rate and it is added to each order. Priority allergens roll up from each ingredient to every product, prices and deposits are in Canadian dollars, and Growth and Business keep the temperature and cleaning records a public health inspector reads. Essentials is C$23 a month, Growth C$30 and Business C$81, with a 14-day free trial. See orders and quotes, recipe costing and Compliance.