CUT DELIVERY APP FEES
Help our restos: Nicolas
It's a cliché because it's so true: Montreal would not be the same without its restaurant scene. Restaurants are part of the city's reputation, fame and ethos. And this year, they need our help.
The Quebec government says it's doing everything it can to support them. But it's not.
Ubereats, Doordash, Skip the Dishes and the like impose service fees of up to 30 per cent on restaurant owners who now have little choice but to use such platforms. If the small businesses ever had any form of negotiation power with the popular apps, it vanished as exceptional measures were put forward in the interest of public health.
Most restaurants make a profit of six to seven per cent when they are thriving. Needless to say, the delivery platform service fees are killing any chances of making sustainable profit. Most owners are only using them to minimize loss and retain a portion of their employees while the storm passes. But as the crisis drags on, the end of the tunnel is still nowhere in sight. Realistically, the face of the city — which includes its neighbourhood staples — will have profoundly transformed before this pandemic is over. We will prevail, but not without scars.
Our government has been watching idly as Montreal's restaurant scene falls prey to the tech oligarchs. Tech businesses are doing well. Really well. Their profits are not shared equitably with the chefs that put their heart into their work and contribute to making the heart of the city beat. Nor are they distributed among the drivers who take on the bulk of the work while enduring employment conditions that defy most hardwon labour reforms of the 20th century. Yet we watch on as if nothing could be done. Capitalists will capitalize. Too bad.
Meanwhile, Ontario Premier Doug Ford is showing us our government could intervene in the economy and wrestle the market forces with a lot more muscle. I'd never thought I'd see the day such things could be said about a Conservative premier, but 2020 is a bottomless bag of surprises.
Last week, Queen's Park tabled legislation that would give Ford's administration the power to cap the fees third-party delivery apps are charging to restaurants located in a red zone. If things go as planned, the Ontario government will cap such fees at around 15 per cent as soon as the bill is passed. This means no less than a 50-per-cent reduction of delivery costs for many struggling small businesses.
There is a caveat, of course: the legislation is meant to be temporary and only applies to restaurants that were forced to close down their dining rooms. One would not want to sound this socialist without insisting in the same breath on the extreme nature of the circumstances.
But so many of the things that were first announced as temporary this year seem to be here to stay after all, albeit in a somewhat modified form. Twenty-eight-day challenges. CERB. Masks. Zoom. The extra weight we've all put on. Why would this fight against tech giants be an exception? And why would the Quebec government not follow suit?
Restaurants are indeed receiving public help for losses due to dining rooms closing and the general recession. Yet we fail to acknowledge that the delivery app free-for-all actually contributes to the dire needs for help. If Quebec City was to legislate, restaurants would recuperate at least part of their autonomy and receive a more just compensation for their work. Isn't that what we all want, after all?
Delivery apps are here to stay. The business model is too convenient from the clients' perspective, pandemic or not. We need to accept that and act and legislate accordingly.
The government did it for Airbnb. They sort of did it for Uber after much loss and no reasonable compensation for taxi drivers. Will they wait for restaurant owners to also lose that much — too much — before stepping in there as well?