Licence appeal bylaw unclear: councillors

People with criminal convictions for domestic violence or impaired driving are getting licences to drive Edmonton taxis, contrary to city rules that are supposed keep them out of the business.

The problem, according to a committee of councillors that oversees the issue, is that the bylaw isn’t clear.

In 2018, tribunals composed of three city councillors granted taxi licences to five out of 10 people who appealed rejections by city officials because they were found to have a criminal conviction within the last 10 years for an offence related to the job of driving a vehicle for hire. The bylaw, brought into effect in 2017, includes any violent offences.

The councillors who sit on the community standards and licence appeal committee gave taxi licences to three people with domestic assault convictions and two people with impaired driving convictions.

One man was convicted of two counts of assault and one count of breaching conditions and he told the tribunal the assaults were domestic. He served 75 days in jail and will remain on probation until April 2019.

He won his appeal and was issued a taxi licence in July.

In a dissenting opinion, Coun. Jon Dziadyk said despite the man’s long driving career, the streak of violence may not be a one-time event. He voted to deny the appeal.

“Given the recent nature of the offence and the violence involved, there is simply too great a risk to the public to do otherwise,” Dziadyk wrote.

But he was overruled by Coun. Moe Banga and Coun. Tony Caterina, who stated in their written reasons that they didn’t see the connection between the offence and driving a taxi.

“What the appellant did was reprehensible both in our eyes and in the eyes of society, but, to state it simply, there is simply no connections between the domestic assault and the functions, duties or business of being a vehicle-for-hire driver,” they stated.

In the two cases of people convicted of impaired driving having appeals granted, both men were driving cabs with the convictions on their record prior to the bylaw changing. When they applied for a new licence after 2017, they were denied.

In both cases, Banga and Caterina found the drivers were not a danger to the public prior to the bylaw change and that it would be unfair to retroactively penalize them.

In an interview Thursday, Banga said as a former police officer he is concerned about licensing people with criminal records. But he defended his votes, especially for cab drivers who had convictions before the bylaw changed.

Banga said he doesn’t think the bylaw is clear about which offences are related to driving a taxi and he said the various councillors who take turns sitting on the tribunal have differing opinions about what counts.

“There’s this unpredictability: you get your licence — or not — depending on who is on the panel that day,” he said.

In a December appeal by a man with a domestic assault conviction, Coun. Tim Cartmell’s vote against granting the licence lost to the in-favour votes by Banga and Coun. Aaron Paquette.

And during a meeting in August when the committee heard four appeals, Coun. Scott McKeen voted against all of them, but was overruled by Banga and Caterina on three.

The appeal the panel unanimously dismissed that day was by a man convicted of criminal flight from police and dangerous operation of a vehicle.

McKeen said he has sympathy for people and believes in rehabilitation, but he said public safety and trust in the city and the integrity of the taxi industry overall are more important than an individual’s ability to work as a taxi driver.

“Are you comfortable getting in one of those? Are you comfortable sending a loved one in one of those? I just thought public confidence in the system was a primary consideration for the committee,” McKeen said in an interview in January.

Hoping to straighten things out, Banga made a motion in October asking for clarification from administration. That report is due back to council in March.

Previously, a police information check was required to get a city taxi licence, but there wasn’t clarity about what that meant, said Wai Tse Ramirez, general supervisor of city licensing, inspections and compliance. When the province introduced a 10-year related criminal conviction rule for ride-sharing drivers in 2017, the city changed its rules to match.

“Our interpretation of the bylaw has been consistent,” said Ramirez in an interview Friday.

In the reasons for the decision in each appeal case, Ramirez and a city lawyer have reiterated their decision is based on the offence falling into an area of the Criminal Code that has been deemed related. She said the report will “provide information for them to have a policy discussion.”