Restaurants owners in B.C. will soon have more certainty about their business costs when it comes to working with food-delivery companies.
On Jan. 1, 2023, Canada’s first permanent cap of fees charged to restaurants from companies like DoorDash and Uber Eats comes into effect.
“We all have a favourite local restaurant, somewhere we celebrate as families and friends, eat our favourite foods, or get a taste of home,” said Brenda Bailey, B.C. minister of jobs, economic development and innovation.
“When restaurants were being charged unfair fees, our government acted fast to implement a temporary cap on delivery-service fees. We’re excited to bring in a permanent cap in the new year that will provide more support to restaurants.”
The Food Delivery Service Fee Act was passed in early November as a response to delivery companies charging as much as 30 per cent of an order’s value during the pandemic.
The new permanent cap limits the fees delivery companies can charge restaurants to no more than 20 per cent of the value of an order, according to the B.C. government.
“We’ve seen dramatic growth in app-based delivery work in recent years,” said Janet Routledge, parliamentary secretary for labour.
“But we need to ensure workers are treated fairly. It was a priority to include protections for food-delivery workers in this legislation that prevent the costs of the delivery-fee cap from being downloaded onto them.”
Drivers are also protected in the new act, as delivery companies are barred from charging the drivers extra costs.
The B.C. government has also implemented a number of other changes to support the industry:
- Bars and tourism operators with liquor licences can permanently purchase beer, wine and spirits at wholesale prices.
- The authorization of thousands of temporary patios.
- Increasing access to the small-business corporate income tax rate by raising the ceiling from $15 million to $50 million in taxable capital