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Uber lobbies every Toronto Councillor as uber-late training Motion delayed again

“Uber lobbyists were back with a vengeance in September, with the ride share company logging 53 communications and winning the month. Uber Canada’s Manager for Public Policy Jake Brockman logged emails to every member of Council. Lobbyist-for-hire Kim Wright was also working on Uber’s behalf in September…Mandatory training for Toronto Uber drivers and other vehicle-for-hire drivers was supposed to start in 2020, but was delayed because of COVID-19.”

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Feature/ProfileTaxi industry news

My Beginning as a Taxi Driver

It must have been in July 1971 that I made the fateful mistake of   answering a Help Wanted advertisement that read: “Taxi drivers wanted. No experience necessary. Apply at …” At the top of a dead- end street in Toronto’s west end, I found what I’ll call the “442 Taxi Garage,” from which some seventy taxicabs operated, which was the largest fleet garage that I would work out of in my entire thirty-year career as a taxicab driver.

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Uber should go back home to America if it can’t obey Canadian law, protesters say

While the September 28 demonstration was held in the Uber parking lot, steps away from the company office, no Uber Canada representatives were in attendance and the corporation did not issue any statement to the Uber Canada website.

A long-time limo driver who joined Uber as an Uber Black driver, Butt was the led the demonstration to protest low pay and unfair practices.

He points out that 300 Uber Black drivers applied to unionize, in January of 2019, hoping to bring Uber to the table to discuss such issues. But three years later, this application is still bogged down at the Ontario Labour Relations Board, with Butt alleging that Uber is attempting to block this process.

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“It’s a joke” that driver training has been delayed two years: Eisenberg

Toronto City Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam has submitted a Notice of Motion regarding Vehicle for Hire driver training and testing to be discussed when Council returns October 1st and October 4th, 2021.

The Motion suggests that Toronto pause issuing licenses to Vehicle for Hire drivers until the driver training and testing program which is now two years overdue is actually implemented. Licensing and Standards staff blame the two year delay on COVID-19; during this period, approximately 40,000 drivers have been licensed in Toronto.

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Opinion/ColumnRide Hailing newsTaxi industry news

By-law written for rideshare companies is not working for rideshare drivers: protest today at Uber head office

Staff at the City of Toronto  are currently developing an update report to the General Government and Licensing Committee in November. The report is intended to speak to work completed since the last Vehicle-for-Hire Bylaw Review and outstanding Council directives (including a driver training program that is now two years late). 

Ironically, as this report is being written, drivers for the corporation which motivated virtually all of the changes to Toronto’s taxi regulatory in 2016 are now protesting that very entity, Uber. 

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Vaccine choice shouldn’t lead to unemployment: MPP Roman Baber

On October 5, 2021, Independent Member of Provincial Parliament Roman Baber intends to introduce a “Jobs & Jabs” Bill, for passing by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario. If passed, the Jobs & Jabs Bill will prevent employers from firing or penalizing employees because of their vaccination status or for refusing to disclose their vaccination status.

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