Taxi licensing debate returns to city council
Posted April 1, 2015 10:17 pm.
Last Updated April 1, 2015 11:46 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The debate over the taxi licensing system is returning to city hall.
Last year council voted to overhaul the system and create one license by 2024- but the Superior Court quashed that decision just over a month ago – ruling there wasn’t enough public consultation.
Taxi plate owners converged on city hall on Wednesday, worried the value of their license will be lost if the reforms go through.
Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong wants to hold public consultations on what to do with the existing licenses. The options he is putting forward are grandfather them so people don’t lose all that money or give drivers a deadline to convert to the new license system.
Minnan-Wong also wants to open up the discussion about what to do with ride-share program Uber and Uber X.
“I think we need to focus on not whether Uber becomes legal or not, the question is if we want to make Uber legal what need to do for great customer service and consumer protection,” he said.
Mayor John Tory said he is open to exploring Uber as well.
“I think the responsible thing to go about this is to take a universal look and say all right how does current technology affect the taxi industry and all other parts and look at it that way,” he said.
But some councillors believed opening up this debate again just furthers the war against the taxi industry.
“The deputy mayor and possibly the mayor are waging war on the taxi industry,” said Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti.
The debate is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. Thursday.
