Submission “a public interest intervention“

The Canadian Taxi Association’s submission to the Ford government’s Northern Rideshare proposal has caught the attention of mainstream media, as the Globe and Mail is expected to publish coverage of it in the days ahead.

“We do not support this pilot as currently structured,” the submission states clearly in its opening paragraphs.

“The Northern Rideshare Framework, as announced and structured, would authorise the commercial transportation of passengers, including women travelling alone at night, seniors, persons with disabilities, and Indigenous community members, along a 740-kilometre remote corridor, by operators subject to no independent driver screening standard, no law enforcement engagement protocol, no verified insurance framework for rural service, and no human trafficking identification or reporting requirement,” states the introduction to the CTA’s submission.

“It would do so before Ontario has established the public governance architecture needed to oversee, audit, or enforce the obligations of the platform through which those services will be provided.”

Drafted in consultation with a coalition of concerned groups and members of Ontario police forces, the 74-page document was submitted to the MTO site on April 10^th. Work on the submission began almost immediately last fall, when a review of ground transportation regulations was announced in Ontario’s Fall Economic Statement.

“Our submission is not a transportation policy objection. It is a public interest intervention,” notes the introduction.

“The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police (OACP), representing more than 1,200 senior officers from the OPP, RCMP, First Nations, and municipal services, was not consulted as part of the Northlander Rideshare Pilot Engagement. The nineteen domestic taxi companies that operate businesses along the Northlander route were not consulted. Women’s groups, human trafficking experts, and vulnerable communities whose members face disproportionate risks of violence, trafficking, and disappearance in the region, have stated they were not consulted.”

In addition to the irreparable harm which may be caused travellers in northern communities, the CTA’s submission also speaks extensively to the harms caused to already-existing local Taxi businesses by American corporations such as Uber and Lyft:

“Market destruction harm – The Northern Rideshare Framework as announced confers favoured market status on US-headquartered rideshare corporations over licensed domestic operators along the Northlander corridor. State subsidized asymmetric market entry, through lighter practical rules, will crush licensed taxi and ground transportation operators in Huntsville, North Bay, Sudbury, and other corridor communities. Operators will suffer plate devaluation, market displacement, and goodwill destruction. The damages are real, foreseeable and non-remote.”