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By Connor Gunn

Council asks province to cap usage fees for app-based food delivery at 15%

Jan 14, 2021 | 1:30 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB– At Tuesday’s Lethbridge City Council meeting, a motion was presented to ask the province to cap usage fees for online and app-based food delivery services at 15 per cent to help local businesses.

Partially due to the pandemic, an increasing number of homes are ordering through services like “Skip the Dishes” or “Uber Eats” to get food delivered right to their doorstep.

These services generally charge restaurants a commission fee of between 20-30 per cent of the order’s total.

City Council wants the province and Premier Jason Kenney to only allow a certain percentage for those services to be commissioned.

The motion in council states that these high usage fees are damaging local restaurants across the province, especially hurting non-chain restaurants.

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“According to Restaurants Canada, 80% of restaurants are barely surviving, 65% are continuing to operate at a loss, 19% are breaking even and 63% of food services businesses that are losing money will take at least a year to return to profitability,” according to the council document.

With many businesses not planning to reopen if or after the pandemic stops, the city says that number is quite large.

“48% of single-unit foodservice operators expect to permanently close their establishment within six months if conditions don’t improve and 56% of multi-unit operators said they expect to close at least one of their locations within the same time period.”

Councillor Joe Mauro voted against the motion saying it most likely won’t accomplish anything by sending the letter.

Mayor Chris Spearman, on the other hand, wants to show his support for businesses during these circumstances.

The letter from city council asking the province to cap the usage charges will be sent to the Alberta Government and Premier Kenney soon.