Vape Wholesale Ontario | Arctic Distributions

Ontario is the province where the same carton can be legal on one shelf and illegal on another. Since 1 July 2020, flavoured vapour products may only be sold in specialty vape stores and licensed cannabis retail stores. Mint, menthol and tobacco flavours are the exception. Everything else — every fruit, dessert and candy SKU in the catalogue — is off limits to a convenience store or gas station.

For a retailer, that single rule decides your assortment. For a distributor, it decides how orders have to be built. This page covers what Ontario permits by store type, the excise position, and the questions worth putting to any supplier serving the province.

Your store type decides your catalogue. If you are not a specialty vape store or a licensed cannabis retailer, you may sell tobacco, mint and menthol flavours only. A supplier who ships a mixed assortment without asking what kind of store you run is shipping you product you cannot legally put out.

The Flavour Rule Is a Store-Type Rule

Under the Smoke-Free Ontario Act, with the relevant changes in force since 1 July 2020:

Store type Flavours permitted Nicotine above 20 mg/mL
Specialty vape store All flavours Permitted under the provincial rule
Licensed cannabis retail store All flavours —
Convenience store, gas station, general retail Tobacco, mint and menthol only Not permitted

Two points on the nicotine column, because they interact and are easy to misread. Ontario's provision distinguishes products above 20 mg/mL and confines them to specialty vape stores. Separately and nationally, Health Canada caps nicotine concentration at 20 mg/mL for vaping products sold in Canada. In practice the federal cap is the one that governs what a compliant supplier can offer you at all. Treat 20 mg/mL as the working ceiling and confirm strength on every listing.

Specialty vape stores carry an additional constraint: indoor display and promotion must not be visible from outside the store. A window-facing shelf or a promotional decal on the glass is the common failure.

Ontario also requires prescribed age-restriction signage at retail.

Age and Identification

  • Minimum age is 19.
  • Identification must be requested from anyone who appears to be under 25. This is stricter than a simple age check — the trigger is appearance, not the customer's actual age, and it is where mystery-shopper enforcement concentrates.

The under-25 rule is the single most common gap between a store's written policy and what happens at the counter. A policy that says "check ID if they look under 19" does not meet the Ontario standard.

Ontario Is a Specified Vaping Province

Vaping products in Canada carry a federal duty. In a specified vaping province, an equal additional provincial duty applies on top, doubling the excise layer on the same volume of e-liquid.

Ontario has been in the coordinated system since 1 July 2024, alongside Quebec, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, set out by the Canada Revenue Agency in EDN95. New Brunswick, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Alberta and Yukon joined in November 2024 under EDN99, and Nova Scotia in February 2026 under EDN107.

Layer First 10 mL Applies in Ontario?
Federal vaping duty $1.12 per 2 mL or part thereof Yes
Additional duty (specified vaping province) $1.12 per 2 mL or part thereof Yes, since 1 July 2024

Rates are published by the CRA; verify the rate in force on the transaction date before using it in a margin calculation.

Stock stamped for a specified vaping province is stamped for that province. British Columbia and Saskatchewan are not in the coordinated system, so product stamped for those markets is not stamped for Ontario. Check the stamp on arrival, not the invoice.

What This Means for Sourcing

In Health Canada's 2024–25 retail enforcement report, non-compliance was observed at 43% of the 546 specialty vaping establishments inspected, with product seized at 235 of them. The most common contravention recorded was prohibited flavour promotion.

Read those as rates among inspected establishments rather than a survey of every shop, and note that Health Canada prioritises inspections on a risk basis. The Ontario point is that flavour is already the most-cited issue nationally, and Ontario layers a store-type restriction on top of it. An order built without regard to your store format is a compliance problem arriving by courier.

Questions worth asking any Ontario supplier

Ask Why it matters
Do you build orders by store type? A convenience store and a specialty vape store have different permitted ranges
Can you flag which SKUs are tobacco, mint or menthol? That is the entire permitted flavour range outside specialty retail
Is this stock stamped for Ontario specifically? BC and Saskatchewan stock carries the federal-only stamp
Do you substitute SKUs when something is out of stock? A flavoured substitute can be unsellable in a non-specialty store
What documentation ships with the order? Invoice, carton count and lot records are what you show an inspector

Ordering From Arctic Distributions

Item Detail
Who we supply Licensed Ontario retailers
Verification before first order Business number, business licence, tax licence
Excise Federal duty plus Ontario's additional provincial vaping duty, since 1 July 2024
Minimum order None. Arctic Distributions accepts wholesale orders of any size with no minimum purchase requirement.
Free shipping threshold C$1,000 before applicable taxes. Below that, Ontario orders carry a flat C$50 shipping fee (C$20 for British Columbia and most other provinces and territories).
Transit time Orders are processed in 1–2 business days, then ship according to destination. See our shipping policy for the current transit bands.
Payment terms Discussed at account setup.

We serve retailers across the province, including Toronto, Ottawa, Mississauga, Brampton, Hamilton, London, Kitchener and Windsor.

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Related reading:

Official sources

Regulations change. Confirm the current text at the links above before relying on any figure or rule on this page.

WARNING: Vaping products contain nicotine, a highly addictive chemical. This website is intended for licensed retailers only. You must be of legal age to purchase (19+ in Ontario).