What rules apply when an Ontario convenience store sells tobacco and vapes?

In Ontario, two laws shape a convenience store’s tobacco and vape sales. The Tobacco Tax Act says no person may sell tobacco products to a consumer unless the person holds a retail dealer’s permit. The Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 and its regulation, O. Reg. 268/18, then limit who may be sold to, where sales may happen, and which vapour products a store may carry. This page covers Ontario only. If your store is in another province, check the rules where you are.

The retail dealer’s permit

Section 3.1 of the Tobacco Tax Act says no person shall sell, offer to sell, deliver or cause to be delivered in Ontario a tobacco product to a consumer unless the person holds a retail dealer’s permit. A permit holder must notify the Minister in writing, forthwith, of all changes in the name or nature of the business, or of its termination. The Ministry of Finance also says tobacco retailers should contact their municipality about any bylaws on the sale of tobacco products.

Age, signs and pharmacy premises

Section 3 of the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, 2017 prohibits selling or supplying tobacco products, vapour products or a prescribed product or substance to a person under the minimum age it sets. Under section 3(2), a seller must not sell or supply them to a person who appears younger than the older age that subsection sets unless the seller has required identification and is satisfied that the person has reached the minimum age. Section 7 requires the prescribed signs to be posted at the place of retail sale, in the prescribed manner. Section 6 also bans sales in listed places, including a pharmacy and an establishment with a pharmacy inside it, or one that a pharmacy’s customers can enter directly or through a corridor used only to connect the two. The list also covers places prescribed by regulation.

Flavoured vapour products and nicotine strength

Section 9 of the Act bans retail sale of flavoured tobacco products, other than those prescribed as exempt, and of vapour products prescribed as flavoured. Under O. Reg. 268/18, retail establishments other than specialty vape stores and cannabis retail stores may not sell or offer to sell flavoured vapour products. That does not apply to products flavoured only with tobacco, menthol or mint. The regulation also bars selling vapour products above the nicotine concentration it sets, except in specialty vape stores.

The regulation defines a specialty vape store as one registered as a specialty vape store with the board of health for the place where it is located, where the share of its sales or inventory purchases that the regulation sets comes from vapour products. A convenience store that is not registered and does not meet that test is not one. For the wider picture of buying a store, see the guide to buying a convenience store in Canada.