Uber ready, waiting for Winnipeg

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This article was published 23/10/2017 (3014 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Uber Canada is ready to go — drivers, cars, apps — the moment Manitoba and the City of Winnipeg make it official.

How many drivers there’ll be in Winnipeg, how often their cars will be available, what they’ll charge and how they’ll be regulated — that’s all still unclear.

“We’ll be ready when and if… if the province and city are ready, we’re ready,” Uber Canada public policy manager Chris Schafer said, a lonely voice Monday night speaking at a legislature committee meeting in support of ride-sharing services becoming legal in Manitoba.

Lonely, except for the Conservative MLAs attending the hearing on Bill 30, the Local Vehicles for Hire Act. The Tories are expected to use their overwhelming majority to pass the bill.

The bill is a violation of property rights that will destroy the livelihoods and lifetime investments of Winnipeg’s taxi drivers and owners, said Tralochan Gill, speaking for Unicity Taxi.

Cabbie after cabbie after cabbie echoed Gill, imploring the committee not to leave them vulnerable and jeopardize the life savings that an overwhelmingly-immigrant industry has invested in licences and taxis they drive 12 hours a day.

“We are your neighbours, your families, your friends,” Gill said. “People in the taxi industry have invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in their licences.

“Our drivers have to go through a rigourous training program. Uber cherrypicks and does not serve all the areas of the city,” while ignoring the disabled, said Gill.

Uber should not compensate taxi industry: Schafer

The committee hearings had 162 people scheduled to speak Monday night, almost all of them taxi drivers and owners.

Bill 30 will disband the Manitoba Taxicab Board, and give municipalities the authority to regulate taxi and limousine services and allow ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft. 

Cabbies packing the committee hearing and spilling out into the corridor were stone-cold silent as Schafer spoke and stared straight ahead as he left.

Schafer was vague about how many prospective drivers Uber has heard from in Winnipeg.

There will be enough and they’ll be ready the first day Uber is legal, said Schafer, pointing out Winnipeg and Vancouver are the only large to mid-size Canadian cities without ride-sharing services.

Most Uber drivers work five to 10 hours a week, making extra cash in their own vehicles, Schafer said.

New Democrat MLA Jim Maloway pressed Schafer to agree taxi drivers and owners should be compensated, but he wouldn’t budge.

No way should new businesses compensate existing ones, said Schafer, who asked how Winnipeg could expect to attract Amazon and similar companies if they were expected to compensate their local competition.

Organized labour against ride-sharing

Meanwhile, organized labour wants no part of Uber.

“We oppose this government’s decision to offload costs” onto municipalities while failing to protect the safety of both passengers and drivers, said Manitoba Federation of Labour president Kevin Rebeck.

“Concerns have been raised about Uber’s background checks for drivers,” said Rebeck, arguing women, and Indigenous women in particular, already fear for their safety and treatment while in taxis.

Rules should be strengthened, not weakened, he said. “These rules are intended to keep drivers and passengers safe, and should be extended to the ride-sharing services.”

Allowing companies such as Uber into the market further serves to encourage “price-gouging” services based on deregulation, and low-income jobs, he said.

Speaking for the Independent Living Resource Centre, Allen Mankewich pointed out taxis which can carry disabled passengers get a break on their costs from the Manitoba Taxicab Board, and can’t charge a higher rate than other cabs.

“Provincial regulators have a unique opportunity for equitable transportation options. There shouldn’t be additional costs placed on riders who have disabilities,” he said.

‘My dad will lose his job’

“We will remember the way you treat us at next election,” cabbie Bhupinderted Mangat warned the politicians Monday. “You cannot become a taxi driver overnight. Many of us have invested our life savings in this industry.”

Canada gave cabbies and their families a chance to make a living, added Malkeet Makkar. “We are working very hard here.”

Through a translator, Makkar told the MLAs: “They sold everything back home to build a life here. Bill 30 screws these people.”

Jaswant Singh said taxi owners follow many rules. “Government is not doing anything for us. Now government brings this bill, it is totally unfair.”

He told MLA New Democrat Ted Marcelino that he knows many drivers who sold everything they had in the Punjab to buy cabs and licences here, so they can work 12-hour days six days a week.

The only female presenter in the first three hours, Grade 10 University of Winnipeg student Anandjot Dhillon told the hearing: “If Uber comes to Winnipeg, my dad will lose his job and be unable to pay my school fees.”

Indigenous and Northern Relations Minister Eileen Clarke cautioned Dhillon not to misunderstand the purpose of the legislation. “Bill 30 is not a bill about Uber,” she said.

Civil engineering student Gohar Aftab told the MLAs: “I’m working 360 hours a month and I’m a fulltime student too. All these people are Punjabi people, and we are hardworking.”

Tory backbencher Wayne Ewasko urged the cabbies to recognize that the NDP’s purpose in fighting Bill 30 is to somehow get the taxi industry unionized.

The committee plans to sit again Tuesday at 6 p.m. and sit no later than midnight. If it is necessary to hear all 162 presenters — including giving a second chance to the few who didn’t show up when their names were called Monday — the committee will sit at 6 p.m. Thursday and possibly even Friday at 10 a.m.

Meanwhile, Manitoba Public Insurance recently told a legislature committee it would have premiums and rates set for ride-sharing vehicles by the end of February.

Winnipeg Mayor Brian Bowman has said civic officials are preparing a bylaw to regulate the taxi industry, including ride-sharing services, and he wants the province to pass the law to make it possible.

“Winnipeggers are telling me they want (taxi) options, they want ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft in our city,” Bowman said. “I want to let all Winnipeggers know I certainly share those views, that I hear you and that I’m with you.

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca