GROWING PRESSURE ON UCP AFTER BUSINESS GROUP JOINS CALL TO CAP FOOD DELIVERY APP FEES

EDMONTON - Pressure is mounting on the UCP government to introduce a cap on food delivery app fees after a group of businesses wrote a letter to Premier Jason Kenney and his Cabinet in support of the policy. 

The Alberta BIA Alliance, a collaboration of over 30 Alberta Business Improvement Areas, is calling for a 15 per cent cap on fees charged to restaurants by food delivery companies, as well as an additional cap of 5 per cent for online processing and ordering fees. 

This comes after Alberta’s NDP, restaurant owners and business advocates called for an identical cap on fees on Wednesday.

“It’s a simple thing we can do to keep money in our local economies,” said Deron Bilous, NDP Critic for Economic Development and Innovation. “Albertans want to support small, local businesses and we want to protect those businesses from being taken advantage of.” 

During consultations held as part of the Alberta’s Future project, the NDP has heard from restaurant owners that fees charged by apps such as SkipTheDishes, Uber Eats and DoorDash can be up to 35 per cent of the value of a food order. 

The City of Calgary has also verified fees in this range through its own analysis and city councillors have unanimously supported a 15 per cent cap and wrote to Premier Jason Kenney in mid-December advocating for legislation to impose the restriction during the pandemic.

British Columbia introduced a cap on fees in late December that will remain in place until three months after that province lifts its pandemic state of emergency. Other major cities, such as San Francisco, New York and Los Angeles have also capped fees.

“If we want to give small businesses a chance of surviving the pandemic and protect jobs, we need to do everything we can to support them now,” said Bilous. “Capping food delivery app fees is an easy and effective step the UCP can take to support these businesses.”