Restaurant owners across the province are breathing a sigh of relief as capped delivery fees will be sticking around a little longer.
The BC government announced the fees charged by third-party services like Skip the Dishes and Doordash will remain at 15% along with an additional 5% limit for other expenses until the end of the year.
BC Restaurants and Food Services Association President and CEO Ian Tostenson thinks a more permanent solution could be coming in the future.
“I suspect the government may be looking at some of the markets in the United States like San Francisco and New York City have put a permanent cap in place. I would think that is something BC will look at considering the government understands the importance of our industry.”
“We are still in a very uncertain economy with our restaurant industry and people still rely on having great restaurant meals at home.”
The province launched the Emergency Program Act, to further assist restaurants when dealing with third-party delivery services last December.
“Our delivery and take-out is probably between 25-35% of our business and when we were paying these rates before the pandemic paying upwards of 30% for delivery there was no money in it for the restaurant owner.”
Interim BC Liberals Leader Shirley Bond has been a staunch supporter of the cap since it was implemented last winter and believes it was key for the Horgan government to play a leadership role in lending a hand to an industry that has sustained its fair share of blows over the past 19 months.
“This is one way that government can demonstrate that it understands the concerns that businesses are presenting.”
“We need to make sure that they are given the kinds of supports and resources that help them not only survive but thrive again in the future. When you look at the delivery app fees when using them if the cap were not in place basically it is a significant impact to the bottom line of restaurants and I think a lot of users don’t understand that.”