City hall unveils ride-sharing rules; parking authority to regulate industry

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This article was published 01/12/2017 (2896 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

City hall unveiled new rules for the taxi industry Friday that will allow ride hailing services like Uber and Lyft to operate beginning March 1 and loosen the rules on traditional taxi operators.

While Mayor Brian Bowman and senior city staff applauded the move, the taxi industry criticized the changes that it said were rushed and done without proper consultation.

“This is for me, largely about providing consumers with more choice and better and safer service, both with the taxi industry as well as personal transportation providers,” Bowman said, using the newly-coined phrase to describe ride hailing operators. “That’s why I’m very excited that we’ve got something now to debate, consider and move forward with. I think consumers will ultimately be the winners in having more choice.”

Included among the provisions of the new regulations:

— The Winnipeg Parking Authority will regulate the industry on an interim basis.

— The city plans to issue 120 new taxi licences.

— There will be no restrictions on the number of vehicles in ride hailing, or personal transportation provider (PTP), services.

— Ride hailing services will pay an annual fee, ranging from $2,000 to $50,000, depending on the number of vehicles it operates.

— Traditional taxi firms will have to pay similar fees, also depending on the size of their fleet.

— City hall will increase fees for taxi drivers and owners.

— Provisions of the new bylaw will be reviewed in 24 months.

City hall has set itself a tight schedule. The proposals will be considered by Bowman’s executive policy committee at its Dec. 6 meeting and then go to a council vote a week later, Dec. 13.

Councillors were briefed on the bylaw at a closed-door meeting Friday morning. The taxi industry only learned of the proposals as they were posted on the city’s website early in the afternoon.

Scott McFadyen, spokesman for the city’s two largest taxi firms, Unicity and Duffy’s, described the proposed bylaw provisions as “good, bad and the ugly.”

McFadyen said adding more taxis is a positive as it will alleviate supply pressures on the industry. He said he was disappointed that ride hailing drivers will not be required to provide the same security measures that will still apply to taxi vehicles.

The “ugly,” he said, is how the bylaw was developed and is being rushed, adding city hall was aware of the March 1 deadline since the spring and it should have released the proposals sooner.

McFadyen said city hall has given the industry only days to review the bylaw and two opportunities to propose formal amendments.

“This is something that has real, far-reaching implications and to do it within the space of a week, really, that’s shocking,” McFadyen said. “To play this shell game with dates is an affront to accountability and transparency.”

Dave Wardrop, the city’s chief transportation and utilities officer, said that while the public will be allowed to suggest improvements at both meetings, city hall had no alternative but to rush to get an infrastructure in place by the March 1 deadline imposed by the province.

Wardrop said the intent of the new bylaw is to modernize and streamline the regulation of the industry and allow it to grow and respond to consumer need, based on four principles: passenger safety, driver safety, consumer protection, and accessibility for all citizens.

“We’ve drafted what we feel is good, guiding policy and a comprehensive bylaw to deal with a new and evolving industry,” Wardrop said.

The introduction of ride hailing services and the overhaul of the taxi industry are the result of the Pallister government’s decision in March to bring more competition to the industry by disbanding the Manitoba Taxicab Board and turning over regulation, at least within Winnipeg, to city hall. Other municipalities already regulate the taxi industry in their own communities.

The legislature passed the enabling legislation Nov. 9 and set a deadline of March 1 for Winnipeg to take over regulation of the industry.

Edmonton was the first city in Canada to authorize ride hailing in March 2016 and that has been followed by Calgary, Ottawa, Toronto, London, Hamilton, Waterloo and dozens of other communities.

Bowman has publicly advocated for ride hailing services and said he’s excited with the changes that are coming.

“With the passage of the provincial legislation to enable this change, we embark on one of the most significant reconfigurations of provincial-municipal service delivery in Winnipeg in decades,” Bowman said. “It represents the changes and improvements we can make when there is alignment and collaboration between governments.”

Wardrop said the new rules will eliminate many of the regulations that governed taxi operators, including rules on vehicle age, cleanliness and customer service but said that taxi drivers will still need to meet minimum English-language proficiency standards — a rule that will not apply to ride hailing drivers.

Wardrop said the goal is to replace regulation in those areas with market competition.

“The idea being to take a minimal approach to regulation to increase market competition and to have market competition take the place of regulation in that regard,” Wardrop said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca

Proposed Vehicle for Hire Bylaw

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