Tension high as council votes on regulating Uber
Cab industry out in force opposing any change to system; Uber Canada general manager says company will continue operating
The city will continue trying to equalize old and new as council took another step toward regulating the taxi industry to better include Uber.
But while council voted decidedly — 32 to 12 — on Wednesday to back Mayor John Tory’s push to create a “level playing field,” the biggest fight is still to come.
The vast majority of councillors voted that new, technology-based services such as Uber will now be covered under city bylaws, which requires them to apply as a taxi and limousine brokerage and pay an annual fee.
But of more significance is that those definitions dictate Uber is now only permitted to connect their users with municipally licensed cabs.
Currently, the California-based company — which allows passengers to hail a car with an app on their phone — connects users to both licensed drivers but also, through the UberX service, to unlicensed drivers using their own cars for a cheaper fare.
While Tory and councillors attempt to further amend the rules, with a report from staff on how they might do that now expected back this spring, Uber was asked by a vote of council to stop operating in the interim.
But immediately following the vote, Uber Canada’s general manager Ian Black said they have no intention of complying with that request.
“I think Uber has a responsibility to the 400,000 riders who rely on us for transportation as well as the 16,000 drivers who rely on us for their income, so Uber intends to continue operating in the city of Toronto,” Black said.
Ahead of the vote Wednesday, Tory reiterated that Uber has been operating outside the city’s current rules — a legal loophole that a Superior Court judge acknowledged earlier this year. But Tory argued it was not “practical” to try to ban Uber, a service that has grown in popularity in Toronto and around the world.
But that notion of equalizing has proved a major challenge in many other North American and Europe- an cities faced with the same questions about Uber, which has uprooted the traditional taxi industry’s business model.
Tory and those backing the regulatory push face not only continued challenges from the taxi industry but also from their own colleagues.
When staff return with recommendations next year, they will first be debated at the municipal licensing and standards committee, whose members have almost unanimously championed the plight of the indus- try and spoken out against Uber. Of the six members on that committee only one — Councillor Josh Matlow — voted with the mayor in favour of regulation on Wednesday.
The council meeting continues Thursday.