Taxi companies want study on impact of ride-hailing services on local industry
City councillors received a letter on Monday from the Peterborough Police Services Board stating the board has adopted an interim bylaw to govern ride-share services in the city.
The police board — which is chaired by Coun. Gary Baldwin — has authority to regulate taxi and ride-hailing businesses in Peterborough.
Two ride-share businesses launched recently in the city; Uride and Y Drive, though only Y Drive is listed as licensed on the Peterborough Police website.
Y Drive owner Rob Davidson, whose service is based in Peterborough, recently told The Examiner it’s because he took the additional step to get his business licensed.
Uride, which is based in Thunder Bay and operates in many mid-sized Ontario cities, isn’t listed as licensed. Its COO, Skye Volpi, wasn’t available for comment.
But Volpi wrote in a recent letter to the police board that he has deep concerns with the rules. For example, he wants the city’s business licence for a ride-share driver to be transferable from one driver to another (since there is much turnover among drivers).
Not allowing that will hobble ride-sharing businesses, he wrote in his letter.
On Monday at the committee meeting, Baldwin also mentioned that local taxi companies — including Capitol Taxi, owned by former mayor Daryl Bennett — have asked city council to conduct a study on the implications of ride-sharing on the taxi industry.
But Baldwin said he didn’t know what new information such a study would yield, what its parameters would be and who would pay for it.
He also mentioned that the Peterborough Council for Persons With Disabilities is concerned about the lack of accessibility from ride-share services.
Also at the general committee meeting on Monday (which was held electronically):
Fire Dispatch contracts
Councillors gave preliminary approval Monday to allow Peterborough Fire Services to continue providing fire dispatch services to Northumberland County (including Cobourg and Port Hope) for another five years.
Peterborough Fire Services bid on a contract to provide the services from 2016-2020, and now all seven municipalities in the county want to renew the agreement from Jan. 1, 2021, until the end of December 2025.
It will mean $442,078 for the city in 2021, with an annual increase of 3.8 per cent (by 2025, the city will charge Northumberland County $513,212 for the services), according to a new city staff report.
It’s going to mean a total of $2,384,935 for the city over five years.
The dispatch service receives 14,000 calls annually, the report states, and the revenue from the contract helps offset costs to operate the dispatch.
The plan needs final approval at a forthcoming city council meeting.
Economic development appointments
Councillors approved a plan to appoint two new people to the Peterborough and the Kawarthas Economic Development board.
Burton Lee, the executive director of business operations for the Peterborough Petes, and Ian Almond, a former senior manager with Siemens Canada Ltd., are the appointees. Their three-year term is expected to last from May 1, 2021, to April 30, 2024.
Peterborough city and county each have five appointees to the board.
The other current city appointees are: Sandra Clancy (city CAO), Sandra Dueck (board chair, communications co-ordinator for Peterborough Police), Terry McCullough (vicepresident and general manager, Savage Arms) and Asaf Zohar (business administration professor, Trent University).
Current county appointees are Sheridan Graham (acting CAO, Peterborough County), Lori Neill (clinic director, Lead the Way group of physiotherapy clinics), Erin McLean (farm m a n a g e r, Mc L e a n Berry Farms), Robert Gauvreau (CEO, Gauvreau and Associates Professional Chartered Accountants) and Jon Drew (coowner and winemaker, Rolling Grape Vineyard in Bailieboro) — pending county council approval.