Ontario’s municipalities are giving a great amount of deference by the courts. Ontario’s Municipal Act states the Superior Court is only permitted to quash a by-law for illegality. Courts are not permitted to review the “the unreasonableness or supposed unreasonableness.”
This is why a group of food truck owners in Brampton were unsuccessful when they challenged a decision by Brampton’s Council to no longer permit mobile food trucks to operate in the downtown.
There is always a tension between bricks-and-mortar businesses and pop-up or mobile businesses.
Hamilton is no stranger to this tension. Before the COVID pandemic in 2020, there were ongoing debates regarding mobile food trucks in Business Improvement Areas and the Downtown.
Bricks-and-mortar businesses have fixed costs such as rent and property taxes. Mobile food trucks can have their storage facilities in lower rent, lower property tax locations.
Bricks-and-mortar businesses complained they were losing business to mobile trucks setting up only during peak demand times, and enjoying the benefits of a business area without the same costs.
Hamilton’s food truck bylaw implements a radial separation distance of 30 metres from bricks-and-mortar restaurants. Trucks can operate in select parks with a permit.
Prior to COVID, Hamilton’s system was working well. COVID changed the economics.
Brampton’s Food Truck Bylaw Upheld Restricting in the Downtown BIA
A recent Superior Court decision in Brampton upheld a city decision to end a previous licensing bylaw that permitted food trucks within that city’s downtown business improvement area.
The result is a group of existing food trucks can no longer operate.
Background Timeline
In February 2023, Brampton’s downtown BIA decided to permit a ‘food district’ of food trucks on a property within the BIA.
In April 2024, the BIA withdrew its permission.
The property owner filed a review in the Divisional Court. In December 2024, the Court quashed the BIA decision on procedural fairness grounds.
The BIA no longer wanted to be burdened with the delegated municipal authority of regulating food trucks.
In late May 2025, Brampton City Council repealed the old food truck bylaw provisions that permitted BIA to grant food trucks permission to operate within their boundaries.
The City’s 50-metre radial separation now applies in BIA areas, and Brampton food trucks lost their permissions to operate in the downtown.
Because this is a bylaw change, unlike zoning changes, there is no grandfathering.
Court Decision
The three-judge Divisonal Court panel acknowledged the owners of 25 and 27 Main Street North invested significant funds to create a site for stationary operation of food trucks.
Nonetheless, Brampton Council had the juristiction and ability to change the bylaw which permitted the operation with BIA consent.
Ultimately, the judges ruled the bylaw change was not illegal, therefore there the Court had no juristiction to review the decision.
“In passing the revised by-law, the City was acting legislatively. It was regulating a range of mobile services and setting policy, rather than making an administrative decision. It was not subject to any duty of procedural fairness. Thus, even if the applicant is alleging that the by-law ought to be quashed for want of procedural fairness, such an argument is legally untenable.”
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v. 1.0.0
Published: August 25, 2025
Last updated: August 25, 2025
Author: Joey Coleman
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v. 1.0.0 original version