Business licence
Business licences, town by town
Before anyone needs money they need permission, and this is the part nobody explains. Every incorporated town here issues its own licence on its own terms, and if you are outside one, there is usually nothing to buy at all. This page says which office is yours. It does not quote fees, because those change every year and your town hall is the only place that can tell you the real one.
Your town
Tell me where you are and I will tell you whose licence you need. The full list is below either way.
Towns that issue their own licence
Everywhere else
Most of this region is rural and unincorporated, so there is no town hall to ask. In most cases a rural property needs no business licence at all. Your authority is the regional district. If you are running something out of a rural property and are not sure whether anything applies, they are the ones to ask, and asking is free.
Regional District of Central Kootenay
Covers the rural areas around Nelson, Castlegar, Creston, Kaslo, the Slocan Valley and the Arrow Lakes.
Regional District of East Kootenay
Covers the rural East Kootenay, the Elk Valley and the Columbia Valley.
Regional District of Kootenay Boundary
Covers the rural areas around Trail and Rossland, and the rural Boundary.
Your chamber of commerce
Membership costs money and nobody makes you join. In a small town, though, the chamber is how you meet the other people doing this, and several of them run the visitor centre that sends tourists to your door. These are the ones on the List.
The other permissions
The business licence is usually not the only yes you need. Three more, depending on what you are opening:
Serving or making food
Any business that serves, prepares or sells food needs a permit from Interior Health before opening. Search their site for food premises permits, or phone your local health protection office.
Building or renovating
Your town hall, or your regional district
Building permits come from the same office as your business licence in an incorporated town, and from your regional district's building department everywhere else. The offices above are the right doors.
Liquor and cannabis
Liquor and cannabis licences are provincial, not municipal, and the timelines are long. Start here well before you plan to open.
How this page is kept
Every office here was checked against its own live site on 23 AUG 2026. These are front doors, not deep links into licence pages, and that is deliberate: while building this page I tried five town licence-page addresses from memory and four of them were already dead, while every city hall front page was exactly where it should be. A front door outlives a page structure, so the front door is what gets linked.
No fees are printed here for the same reason no grant deadlines are printed on the funding page. If you find a link that has gone stale, tell me and I will fix it.
Who actually funds a business here · Add or claim your listing