A Toronto-area restaurant chain has taken it upon itself to begin charging all customers a carbon fee on each and every bill.
Goodfellas Wood Oven Pizza has seven locations across the Greater Toronto Area, and it's now adding a 2 per cent carbon fee onto all orders.
At the bottom of its receipts, the chain shares the reasoning for the charge, saying in part, āWhat we eat fuels climate change. Adding 2% to every restaurant bill to invest in carbon capture will help offset our carbon footprint.ā
The fee was flagged by Joseph Cristiano, an employee of Bell Media, while he was out to celebrate a friendās birthday at Goodfellas Wood Oven Pizza in Torontoās west end.
āWe had a wonderful meal, drinks were flowing and it was a great time,ā recalled Cristiano. He said it wasnāt until he was leaving the restaurant that he took a closer look at the bill.
āI said, 'Oh look at this, what is this fee?'ā
For Cristianoās bill, the new charge came in at $3 and change. He said that itās the first time he can ever remember seeing such a charge on a restaurant bill heās received anywhere in Canada.
Ā鶹“«Ć½ reached out to Goodfellas, but the company didnāt respond.
Its website sheds more light on the reasoning, saying that, with many of its products coming from Italy, it's chosen to offset its carbon footprint by āsupporting Tree Canadaās National Greening program, which plants trees in areas that need reforestation.ā
Cristiano said as long as the money is going where itās intended, then heās OK with the nominal charge, but as a customer, heād like more assurances.
āIf you're going to charge and you're going to say, 'This is what I'm putting it towards,' then I'd like to know that it's going where itās (supposed to be) going,ā Cristiano said.
According to the Canadian Federation of Independent Businesses, as long as the restaurant doesn't call its carbon fee a tax, what it's doing is completely legal.
āThis is a business choice to put line items on a receipt. The business has been totally above board,ā the CFIBās Julie Kwiecinski told Ā鶹“«Ć½.
Kwiecinski said she believes thereās a bigger issue for customers and business owners to focus on.
According to the CFIB, ābusinesses across Canada are owed $2.5 billion in past due carbon tax revenues. People have been getting their cheques (but) businesses havenāt.
"If the federal government doesnāt fix the broken carbon tax rebate system, then itās just a giant ripoff,ā Kwiecinski said.
Cristiano is clear: he said he wants people to know heās not complaining about the restaurant or the carbon fee.
Heās received plenty of backlash to his story on social media, with some saying he should have tipped less in response to the surprise carbon fee. But heās quick to point out that it isnāt the server charging the carbon fee, so offsetting the extra charge with a tip would be unfair.
As for whether a carbon fee would stop him from going back to Goodfellas or any other restaurant, Cristiano said, āprobably not. I think I can live with 2%."
But, he said, "if a restaurant starts putting 10% or more on their end, then Iād be like, 'Alright I can cook at home.'ā
