Cornwall votes to delay rideshare item
Municipal elections, Ontario pilot program given as reasons to wait
The City of Cornwall Council has voted to delay work on creating a new vehicle for hire by-law until at least after the upcoming municipal elections.
Deputy fire services chief and manager of bylaw services Leighton Woods and bylaw supervisor Bernardo Gonzalez presented proposed changes toto Cornwall City Council on September 28th. Councillors were provided with background information on vehicle for hire regulation and discussion points staff considered important to the decision which Woods refers to as a “complete modernization and rewrite.”
“My position is this is not a decision that we ought to be rushing into,” said Councillor Sarah Good. “I am uncomfortable with the fact that we have less than a month left in this term of council, and we are being asked to make a decision that can have far-reaching implications.”
Good pointed out that she has outstanding items from 2023 that have never made it back to Council, while this rideshare item is moving at such a high rate of speed, relatively speaking: “I also find it unusual that a public survey was conducted, of which Council was never advised,” she noted.
Councillor MacIntosh asked questions regarding whether rideshare would be required to provide 24-hour service, as Taxis are required to do, and whether every rideshare driver’s identification would be displayed publicly in the vehicle, as Taxis are required to have.
Cornwall Council eventually voted to receive the report for information, planning for it to come back after municipal elections and possibly after the province of Ontario wraps up its rideshare pilot on May 19, 2027.
