Another class of drivers has been allowed to enter the vehicle-forhire market in Ottawa in unlimited numbers and in uncontrolled fashion.

Impact of bylaw on drivers’ livelihoods was never considered, court told

LAWYER MONICA SONG, representing the city’s taxi union in a court challenge to the by law allowing uber to operate in Ottawa.

The City of Ottawa failed to consider how a restructured vehicle-for-hire bylaw would impact the livelihoods of cabbies who have worked for decades under a tightly controlled taxi regime, a lawyer argued in court Thursday.

“What has fundamentally changed is another class of drivers has been allowed to enter the vehicle-for-hire market in Ottawa in unlimited numbers and in uncontrolled fashion,” Monica Song told a Superior Court judge during the first day of a hearing on the taxi union’s challenge to the 17-monthold bylaw.

Song said cabbies were caught off-guard when, at the end of March 2016, the city published a proposed bylaw change that would create two licensing categories for taxis and private transportation companies (PTC) like Uber. The proposal would be approved by the community and protective services committee a week later, and ratified by council a week after that.

The rules for cabbies, including the meter rates, stayed relatively the same under the bylaw change, but taxi drivers were suddenly exposed to major competition, Song said. For years, the city made a “bargain” with cabbies that, through the regulatory system, it would limit the amount of competition in the taxi market as long as they provided safe and reliable transportation services to the travelling public, she said.

One of the cabbies’ allegations is that the city showed bad faith in changing the bylaw. The city skirted concerns over the economic impact to cabbies and approved a new bylaw that puts cabbies at a disadvantage compared to PTCs, they say. There are different rules for each of the two classes of ride providers, leading to cabbies claiming that the city is contravening the Ontario Municipal Act by effectively giving bonuses to PTCs.

As many as 20 taxi supporters were in the gallery during the first day of the two-day hearing.

The city, which has hired external lawyers to handle its defence of the bylaw, hasn’t yet made arguments during the hearing. The city’s lawyers are expected to show to the court video snippets from a council meeting in defending the city’s decision-making.

Song used driver numbers to illustrate the impact of PTCs on the local taxi market. She told the judge there were more than 3,700 PTC drivers in Ottawa as of December 2017, compared to roughly 1,500 when the bylaw took effect at the end of September 2016. There are 1,192 licensed taxis.

The city didn’t bother researching how a dual-licensing system would financially impact cabbies, Song said, pointing to a KPMG study done for the city that acknowledges taxi plate values were outside the scope of the consultants’ analysis.

Taxi plates, while they ’re owned by the city, can be purchased and sold on a secondary market. When PTCs became street legal, cabbies said the value of their plates dropped significantly.

The largest PTC operating in Ottawa is Uber. The local ride market is poised to see even more competition when the city clears Lyft for a PTC licence. Lyft hasn’t said when it intends to start operating in the capital, but it has filed a licence application.

The court hearing is scheduled to continue Friday.

The taxi union’s bylaw challenge is separate from a $215-million class-action lawsuit launched against the city by the CEO of Coventry Connections and other plate holders. Those plaintiffs claim the city’s new vehicle-forhire bylaw discriminates against cabbies, since many are from minority groups.

Their allegations haven’t been tested in court.