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Skip The Dishes adds $0.99 ‘B.C. Fee’ after province caps what it can charge restaurants

Click to play video: 'B.C. government announce 15% cap on restaurant delivery service fees'
B.C. government announce 15% cap on restaurant delivery service fees
WATCH: B.C. Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth makes an announcement Tuesday that the provincial government is capping the fees being charged by app-based food delivery services. The new rules are designed to help the bottom line of B.C.'s struggling restaurant operators. – Dec 22, 2020

One of the big name food delivery services is responding to British Columbia’s cap on restaurant fees by shifting some of the burden to the consumer.

The B.C. government capped the amount delivery services can charge restaurants at 15 per cent for three months starting Dec. 27, in a bid to help restaurants hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Food courier company Skip The Dishes says it is now adding a temporary $0.99 cent “B.C. Fee” onto all orders within the province.

Click to play video: 'B.C. restaurants get a reprieve after Province caps food delivery fees'
B.C. restaurants get a reprieve after Province caps food delivery fees

In an email, a spokesperson for the company said the fee was a direct result of the province’s regulation “to ensure that there is no impact to the service and support we’re able to provide all our stakeholders while the order is in effect.”

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“We want to be transparent with our customers and make it clear why they are seeing this fee while the order is in place.”

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Delivery competitors Uber Eats and Door Dash have both long charged service fees, but neither has yet made a move to tie an increase in those fees to the provincial order.

READ MORE: B.C. restaurant industry praises election promises to cap food delivery fees

The company says it has supported restaurants throughout the pandemic with $43 million in commission rebates and “order-driving initiatives.”

Click to play video: '‘Perfect timing’: Okanagan restaurants welcome cap on food delivery fees'
‘Perfect timing’: Okanagan restaurants welcome cap on food delivery fees

In an email to restaurant clients, the company said the provincial measures would “limit our ability to help the restaurants who need it.”

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“While we agree that government support for restaurants is needed, we feel the way this legislation is arranged–imposing commission caps across the province to all restaurants, regardless of size or the impact restrictions have had on their business–is no the most effective way to support the industry,” it said.

The delivery fee cap was an election promise from both the governing BC NDP and opposition BC Liberals in the 2020 provincial election.

The restaurants industry had complained that delivery fees of up to 30 per cent on the total of an order were prohibitively expensive amid a downturn in dine-in eating.

U.S. cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and New York have also implemented similar caps.

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