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Canada Multi-Province Tax-Aware Delivery Pricing (2026): One Formula, Different Province Reality

A practical Canadian playbook for restaurants operating across provinces: calculate delivery menu floors pre-tax, then apply province-specific GST/HST cleanly.

Published Feb 14, 2026
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If your ops span more than one province, one flat delivery price is usually false simplicity. It looks clean on menu boards and messy in margin reports.

This guide gives you a province-aware pricing workflow you can run quickly.

Quick Summary

  • Build delivery floor on pre-tax economics.
  • Apply province tax at checkout, not inside cost denominator.
  • Compare contribution by province, not only by channel.
  • Refresh assumptions monthly.

Why This Matters in 2026

Statistics Canada (December 2025, released 19 January 2026) reported:

  • All-items CPI: +1.8% YoY
  • Food purchased from restaurants: +8.5% YoY

That spread means restaurant pricing pressure remains stronger than headline CPI. If province tax logic is mixed into cost math, decisions get noisy fast.

Core Formula

requiredPreTaxPrice = (foodCost + labourCost + packaging + deliveryVariableCost)
                      / (1 - targetMargin)
checkoutPrice = requiredPreTaxPrice x (1 + provinceTaxRate)

Province Snapshot (Example)

  • Ontario: 13% HST
  • Alberta: 5% GST
  • Nova Scotia: 14% HST

Use your actual operating footprint, not a blended average.

Worked Example

Assumptions:

  • Required pre-tax delivery price: CAD 18.40
Ontario checkout = 18.40 x 1.13 = CAD 20.79
Alberta checkout = 18.40 x 1.05 = CAD 19.32
Nova Scotia checkout = 18.40 x 1.14 = CAD 20.98

Same pre-tax floor, different customer-facing totals. That is why tax-aware communication matters too.

20-Minute Monthly Routine

  1. Refresh ingredient and labor assumptions.
  2. Recalculate pre-tax delivery floors for top SKUs.
  3. Validate GST/HST mapping by province in POS and delivery channels.
  4. Check province-level contribution trend.
  5. Adjust low-contribution SKUs first.

Stop Rules

  • Province contribution drops for 2 consecutive cycles.
  • Tax mapping mismatch found in checkout receipts.
  • Delivery fee changes not reflected in price floor.

Common Mistakes

  1. One national delivery price with no province logic.
  2. Tax-inclusive sales used as margin denominator.
  3. Province tax setup not synced across channels.
  4. Waiting for quarter-end to fix delivery leakage.

KitchenCost helps you keep pre-tax cost floors current before province checkout math is applied.

Try KitchenCost.

Sources (checked on 2026-02-14)

Frequently Asked Questions

Can one delivery menu price work for all Canadian provinces?

Usually no. Tax handling and channel economics differ, so one national price often hides contribution problems.

Should delivery margin math use tax-inclusive totals?

No. Build item and channel contribution on pre-tax numbers first, then apply province-specific GST/HST at checkout.

Which province rates should operators model first?

Start with your highest-volume provinces and any province where your checkout tax rate differs materially from your base market.

How often should tax-aware delivery pricing be reviewed?

Monthly minimum, and immediately when channel fees, tax setup, or supplier costs change.

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