Taxi firms were looped in, city tells court

There was nothing clandestine about the city’s work writing a new vehicle-forhire bylaw, despite what cabbies believe, a lawyer representing the city said in court Friday.

Benoit Duchesne told Justice Maria Linhares de Sousa that the city and its consultant talked with the taxi industry as it was brainstorming options for changing the ride-ordering bylaw, which led to a dual-licensing system for taxis and private transportation companies (PTCs).

The city even released discussion papers to the public in 2015 as it researched regulations and possible changes, Duchesne said.

The previous day in the hearing, the lawyer for the taxi union suggested a staff report was released in March 2016 without any warning that there would be a proposal to implement major bylaw changes allowing PTCs, such as Uber.

The taxi union is asking the judge to quash the vehicle-for-hire bylaw because it believes the regulations were created in bad faith without proper consultation on the impacts to the taxi industry.

Duchesne tried to show the judge how looped in the taxi industry was, using the city’s lobbyist registry. The taxi union president at the time was a registered lobbyist who recorded 31 meetings with city officials, including councillors, between October 2012 and April 2016. Coventry Connections, the largest taxi company in the city, met with the municipal government 93 times, Duchesne said.

KPMG, the consultant hired by the city to provide bylaw options, held workshops with the taxi industry and invited the public to provide feedback. The work received coverage in the press. The consultant considered nearly 3,000 comments, Duchesne said.

According to Duchesne, the taxi union executive met with KPMG three times to share its views.

The court booked a third day for the hearing, which is scheduled to continue on March 5.