Should caps on food delivery fees paid by restaurants be made permanent?

Photo: The Canadian Press

Sharon Bond, the owner of Kekuli Cafe in Westbank, B.C., hopes food delivery apps will keep their commissions low after caps provinces enacted during the pandemic expire. Bond is pictured in a handout photo with Elijah Mack-Stirling, who owns a Kekuli location in Merritt, B.C.

Restaurant owners say food delivery apps have taken too big a bite out of their revenues for too long.

Food delivery apps were forced to implement lower fees when dine-in service was closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and restaurants say the change should be made permanent if they are to recover from the crisis.

"I really hope they do keep the lower fees because it does help a lot," said Sharon Bond, the owner of Westbank, B.C.'s Kekuli Cafe. "Costs have gone up tremendously.

"We're in a pandemic so (everyone's saying), 'let's charge triple for everything.'"

Her remarks come as caps on the fees charged by delivery apps have been lifted or are edging toward summer end dates in several provinces.

Food delivery companies typically charge restaurants a commission for every delivery, sometimes as much as 30 per cent of the order cost. Fee caps were added by five provinces after dining rooms were forced to close months during the pandemic, increasing their reliance meal delivery apps to pay the bills since many were offering takeout for the first time and didn't have the mechanism to offer delivery themselves.

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