NFPA 96 and the Ontario Fire Code
NFPA 96 is the standard covering ventilation control and fire protection of commercial cooking operations. It is published by the National Fire Protection Association, and it is the document that defines what a properly maintained kitchen exhaust system looks like: how often it is cleaned, how it must be reachable, what it is built from, and what has to be written down afterwards. This page sets out what it asks of a Kanata kitchen in plain terms.
How a US standard ends up governing a kitchen in Kanata
Through the Ontario Fire Code, which is the part that carries legal force here.
The law that applies to your kitchen is the Ontario Fire Code, made under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act. It requires that commercial cooking equipment and the exhaust systems serving it be maintained, kept free of accumulated grease, and inspected on a schedule. It does not reprint every technical detail of how to do that. Instead it leans on the recognised standard for the work, which is NFPA 96.
The practical effect is that an inspector arriving at your kitchen is enforcing the Ontario Fire Code, and using NFPA 96 as the yardstick for whether you have met it. Arguing that NFPA is an American organisation is not a defence, and it is not a conversation anyone wins.
In Kanata the enforcing authority is Ottawa Fire Services. Kanata amalgamated into the City of Ottawa on 1 January 2001, so there is no separate Kanata fire department, no separate Kanata bylaw, and no different standard for the west end than for the rest of the city. Stittsville, Carp and Richmond are in exactly the same position. If you have been told the rules are different out here, they are not.
Nobody is NFPA 96 certified, and you should be suspicious of anyone who says they are
This is the single most common false claim in the industry, and it is worth understanding before you hire.
NFPA writes and publishes standards. It does not run a certification programme for hood cleaning contractors, and it does not issue a licence, a badge or a number that a company can hold. There is no Ontario government licence for kitchen exhaust cleaning either. So a company advertising itself as "NFPA 96 certified" is describing something that does not exist.
What can honestly be said is that a company works to the NFPA 96 standard: that it cleans to the extent the standard describes, at the frequency the standard sets, and documents the result the way the standard expects. That is the claim this business makes, and it is the claim you should ask any contractor to put in writing.
Individual technicians can hold genuine training credentials, and industry bodies such as IKECA run real certification programmes for people and companies. Those are worth asking about by name. "NFPA 96 certified" on its own is a marketing phrase, and it is often attached to the same quotes that turn out to exclude the plenum and the duct.
The four things the standard actually asks of you
Frequency gets all the attention. It is one requirement out of four, and it is not the one most kitchens fail on.
1. Inspect and clean on a set interval
The interval is set by how the kitchen cooks. Solid fuel monthly, high volume quarterly, moderate volume semi-annually, low volume annually. The inspection happens at that interval whether or not a cleaning proves necessary, and the inspection itself is recorded.
2. Clean to bare metal, across the whole system
The standard expects grease removed down to the surface, along the entire path from the hood to the fan. Partial cleaning of the visible sections does not satisfy it, which is why the plenum and the duct run matter so much more than the polished stainless everyone can see.
3. Keep the system reachable
Access openings at each change of direction and along straight runs, sized and gasketed correctly, so the duct can be cleaned and inspected along its length. A system nobody can open is a system nobody can certify. This is the requirement most older Kanata fit-outs fail.
4. Keep the paperwork
Date, the name of the servicing company, the areas cleaned, and any area found not cleanable, kept on site and available on request. The record is the part an inspector sees first and the part an insurer asks for after a loss.
Frequency is the requirement everyone quotes and access is the one that fails inspections, because a duct with a single opening at the collar cannot be cleaned along its length no matter how often somebody visits. Fitting compliant panels is covered on the kitchen exhaust cleaning page.
What an inspector asks to see
In roughly this order, and the whole visit usually turns on the first two.
The last certificate
Its date tells the inspector whether you are inside your interval before anything is opened. A missing or expired certificate sets the tone for everything that follows.
Behind a filter
A filter comes out and the plenum gets looked at or felt. This is the fastest test of whether the last cleaning was real, and it is why the plenum is worth insisting on.
The filter bank itself
Baffles present across the full opening, seated in the rails, undamaged, and of the correct type. Mesh filters where baffles belong are noted immediately.
Duct access
Whether openings exist, whether they can be opened, and what the duct looks like through them. No access means no evidence the run has ever been cleaned.
The suppression system
Its own service tag and interval, separate from the cleaning. Nozzles aimed correctly, and repositioned if the cook line underneath has been changed since installation.
The roof, sometimes
Not on every visit, but a fan curb overflowing onto the membrane is visible from the hatch and reflects on everything below it.
Working out which interval applies to you
The categories sound obvious until you try to place a real kitchen in one.
Solid fuel is unambiguous. If anything burns wood or charcoal, the interval is monthly, and it is monthly regardless of how little you cook. Solid fuel produces creosote as well as grease, and creosote behaves differently and worse.
High volume covers kitchens running long hours, wok lines, charbroilers, and anything cooking heavily every day. If a kitchen runs a fryer and a charbroiler through both lunch and dinner, seven days, it is high volume even if the room is small.
Moderate volume is where most Kanata restaurants and pubs sit, and it is also where the arguments happen. A corporate servery that runs a grill and a fryer five days a week is not low volume simply because it closes at two in the afternoon. An arena concession that cooks forty punishing nights a year is not high volume simply because those nights are punishing. What settles it is the grease load found on the first visit, which is a measurement rather than a debate.
Low volume means genuinely light cooking: seasonal operations, day camps, community halls, kitchens doing little more than reheating. It does not mean a kitchen that is quiet this quarter.
Get the category wrong in your favour and the consequence is not usually a fine. It is an insurer with a documented reason to question a claim, and that is a much more expensive outcome. The hood cleaning cost page covers how frequency affects what you pay, and cleaning more often is generally cheaper per visit than letting a system load up.
Frequently asked questions
Is NFPA 96 law in Ontario?
Not directly. The Ontario Fire Code is the law, made under the Fire Protection and Prevention Act, and it requires commercial cooking exhaust systems to be maintained and kept free of grease accumulation. NFPA 96 is the recognised standard defining what that maintenance involves, so it is the benchmark used in practice when a system is assessed. The distinction matters legally and changes nothing about what your kitchen has to do.
Who enforces it in Kanata?
Ottawa Fire Services. Kanata amalgamated into the City of Ottawa in 2001, so there is no separate Kanata fire service and no local variation on the standard. Stittsville, Carp and Richmond fall under the same authority.
Can a company be NFPA 96 certified?
No. NFPA publishes standards and does not certify hood cleaning contractors, and Ontario does not license the trade. A company can honestly say it works to the NFPA 96 standard, and individual technicians or companies can hold genuine credentials from bodies such as IKECA. Treat "NFPA 96 certified" as a marketing phrase and ask instead for the written scope of work and the photographs.
What happens if my system fails an inspection?
Typically an order to correct within a set period, with a re-inspection to follow. The more serious risk is not the order. It is that a documented failure sits on file, and if a fire follows, your insurer has a recorded reason to dispute the claim. Fixing the finding quickly and keeping the certificate that proves it is what closes that exposure.
How long should I keep cleaning records?
Keep them on site and available, and hold at least the last two years. Insurers routinely ask for a history rather than a single recent certificate, and a continuous record across several years is far more persuasive than one document dated shortly before a claim.
Does the fire suppression system count as part of this?
It is separate, with its own service interval and its own tag, handled by a suppression contractor rather than a cleaning company. It is worth aligning the two schedules, and worth having the nozzles reviewed whenever the cook line underneath changes, because equipment gets moved far more often than nozzles get repositioned.