Friday, October 30, 2026
Taxi News & Road Warrior News

Opinion/Column

Opinion/Column

Ontario’s very quiet labour consultation during the Dog Days of Summer – with July 31 deadline

Rita Smith

The province’s eventual goals are to “propose labour and employment law reforms” and to “advance our world-class employment and training programs.” Without saying it in so many words, the Ontario Workforce Recovery Advisory Committee appears to have been created to address the idea that workers in the gig economy should expect a different level of protection under the province’s labour laws than has been traditional.

Read More
Opinion/ColumnTaxi industry newsTrucking

Maybe Uber will be able to accomplish in Trucking what it’s failed to do in Taxi: turn a profit while drivers earn a fair living

Rita Smith

Reading coverage of the Transplace purchase and other recent Uber-themed articles in logistics media, you could almost get the impression that Uber is a profitable, efficient company generously looking to share its success with outdated trucking and logistics industries that have somehow struggled along without its help for a century.

In fact, none of the cold, hard data supports this idea.

Read More
Opinion/ColumnTaxi industry news

Duffy’s Domain: hello, and…good-bye?

Guest Contributor

It is time to pass the torch. I have sold Taxi News and all rights to use the name to Rita Smith. Many of you in the taxi business already know of and her: for seven years in the 1990s, Rita was the Editor of Taxi News before she was recruited to other projects to which she could devote her considerable talents, including multiple positions in our provincial and federal governments.

Read More
Opinion/Column

Turning busy roads into bike paths: why?

Sue-Ann Levy

Toronto City Hall had put considerable resources, it seems, to close the 2-km stretch from Rosedale Valley Road down to Front St. East for the weekend — big orange barriers, signage and a police officer at each end. Given that the Gardiner Expressway was closed for maintenance and there were already bike lanes on Bayview, it made absolutely no sense. It was nothing more than an exercise in virtue signalling by a cabal of politicians and bureaucrats who wouldn’t be caught dead riding downtown themselves.

Read More
Opinion/ColumnRide Hailing newsTaxi industry news

Who will be first to sue Uber in Canada?

Rita Smith

However, as of July 1st 2021, Uber Canada will be located in Canada. Up until now, its head offices have been located in the Netherlands, a situation which has allowed it to avoid paying many of the same taxes competing Canadian business are required by law to pay. Uber’s “Double Dutch” tax avoidance strategy has been well investigated in other articles which are well worth reading.

Less well investigated is what we might call Uber’s “Lawsuit Avoidance Strategy,” which up until now could be summarized as: “Hide in the Netherlands and make anyone who wants to sue you, for any reason large or small, fly to Europe and find you in order to get their day at the Hague.”

Read More
Guest ContributionsOpinion/Column

Concrete questions need to be asked after Florida building collapse

Guest Contributor

The thing that was unique about this building was that sometimes when I pulled the trigger, the piston would blow right through the box and into the ceiling, and a cloud of concrete dust would fall back in my face. I had hit a hollow spot in the concrete. This happened often.

In order to get the boxes to attach to the ceiling, in this case, I would have to move the box to a different location and try again, hopefully finding a spot where…

there was actually some solid concrete.

Read More