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Victoria councillor wants city to develop its own delivery app

Coun. Ben Isitt wants a ‘made-in-Victoria’ app to help local businesses
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A Victoria councillor wants to spark a ‘made-in-Victoria’ delivery app to help residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. (Black Press Media file photo)

A Victoria city councillor is looking to spark a “made-in-Victoria” delivery app to help residents and businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Coun. Ben Isitt has forwarded a motion recommending that the city work with local IT agencies to develop an “on-demand delivery/dispatch app” to compete with larger organizations, such as Skip The Dishes and Tutti.

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“There are also major disadvantages with emerging for-profit, on-demand delivery platforms, which often extract revenues (and economic opportunities) from local communities to large national and transnational corporations,” Isitt wrote in his motion to council. “These emerging on-demand delivery platforms often impose onerous terms on local business and also present major risks to the fair treatment of employees, the economic viability of local providers, and compliance with Workplace Safety, Employment Standards, public health and consumer safety requirements.”

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Delivery services could include things for groceries, pharmaceuticals and other local goods.

The non-profit model, Isitt argues, would provide a “uniformly reliable and fair” platform for local businesses.

The motion comes to the committee of the whole on Thursday. Presently, no details are available for proposed budgeting or timing for this endeavor.

nicole.crescenzi@vicnews.com

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