Cabbies slam Uber over ride-share bylaw
Taxi drivers descended on a northeast hotel Thursday to passionately speak against proposed bylaw changes that if passed by city council would see Uber resume operations in Calgary.
Two Calgary police officers and two security guards watched as members of the public addressed the Livery Transport Advisory Committee and blasted ride-share giant Uber during a special meeting at the Clarion Hotel that lasted five hours.
The meeting was called because city administration wants to revisit a ride-share bylaw (approved by council in February in a 14-1 vote) and test changes for one year to the application process and licence fee system, in an attempt to get more transportation network companies operating in Calgary.
An Uber representative attended Thursday’s meeting and said if the bylaw amendments pitched by city administration are approved by city council, Uber will return to Calgary “as soon as possible.”
“The proposed changes are a step in the right direction. It would allow Uber to begin to operate,” Michael van Hemmen, public policy manager with Uber Canada, told reporters Thursday.
“The current bylaw is cost-prohibitive and creates barriers for drivers to participate.”
The brash U.S.-based ridesharing company with a reported valuation of more than $50 billion abandoned Calgary in February amid a new ride-share bylaw they called unworkable, the same one the mayor touted as a 21st century model other cities could emulate.
Eight months after the bylaw was passed and six months after into went into effect, the city has licensed five Transportation Network Companies and issued just 70 licences to drivers — numbers city administration says are in line with what was expected.
While taxi drivers who attended Thursday’s meeting accused the city of giving in to Uber, Marc Halat, community standards manager at the city, said that’s not the case.
“I won’t deny that Uber does provide a sense of pressure, but we’ve known they were coming, we’ve been trying to develop a framework that will accommodate everybody and they’re not getting any more of a considered effort on my part than anybody else,” he said.
But, cab drivers who lined up to address the committee Thursday and company owners disagreed.
“There’s no doubt this was all orchestrated by city hall. It’s a backroom deal,” said Roger Richard, president of Calgary’s Associated Cab.
Kurt Enders, president of Checker Yellow Cabs and a member of the Livery Transport Advisory Committee, said the cab industry was blindsided by the proposed changes and not properly consulted.
“Companies can operate today under the current bylaw and certain companies choose not to operate because it doesn’t fit their business model,” Enders said.
“It seems that there is one particular company driving this.”
The Livery and Transport Advisory Committee, made up of representatives from the industry and the general public, eventually deferred the matter to the group’s next meeting, in mid November, when the number of taxi plates in Calgary will also be discussed.
The city said earlier this week that the proposed amendments would allow new companies to serve the market in time for the holiday season, a timeline that could be delayed depending on what takes place at the next Livery and Transport Advisory Committee meeting.