MTO appears “focused on a pre-decided outcome”
“Clearly, they are not listening to local businesses”
Ministry of Transportation staff “would not engage in the context of the rideshare conversation,” on a stakeholder call this week, says Mike Sanders of Sudbury’s Aaron Group Taxi.
The stated purpose of the September 23 Rideshare Ontario teleconference session was to gather perspectives to inform any future considerations of a broader provincial framework for rideshare services.
Photo: Aaron Taxi
Sanders was one of three Taxi company owners, and the only Northern Ontario Taxi operator, on the call. Kristine Hubbard from Toronto’s Beck Taxi and Marc Andre Way of Coventry Connections and president of the Canadian Taxi Association were also on the call.
“Staff on the call appear to remain focused on a pre-decided outcome,” Sanders told Taxi News. “They would not engage with the context of the situation.”
The context to which Sanders refers is the fact that Ontario provided very little notice before it launched a pilot project permitting American rideshare corporations like Uber and Lyft to operate in rural and northern Ontario communities. The pilot regulations posted May 19th were released in anticipation of expanding these regulations across the entire province.
Previous to the May 19th regulations release, municipal governments which chose to permit rideshare, like Sudbury, wrote and enforced their own by-laws.
Sanders says that Ontario’s tight timeframe means he was given about 45 days to adjust his entire business in what he notes is “the single largest re-organization of the ground transportation business which has occurred in a century….I have had to lay off drivers and park cars. I had just invested in several new vehicles before Ontario allowed Uber to move in with predatory pricing. Ontario did not speak to a single local ground transportation company before they rolled this out.
“Clearly, they are not listening to local businesses. The question is, who are they listening to?”
Ontario says that it needs to authorize ridesharing through the Provincial Rideshare Program to expand transportation options in northern communities. However, operators in Sudbury, North Bay and Huntsville told Taxi News that allowing Uber’s predatory pricing model will actually reduce options as existing services cannot stay financially viable while they are forced to compete with subsidized services funded by American venture capital firms.
Already, Sanders says, Aaron Group has had to cancel overnight shuttle services it has provided between Sudbury street encampments and homeless shelters and warming centres.
“My staff is being hollowed out, and we provide this service as more of a community contribution than a revenue source. We can’t afford to sustain this, and will have to end it on September 30.”
In its submission to the rideshare consultation, the Canadian Taxi Association stated that it did not support the pilot as structured.
“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.”
The Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police supports the CTA in suggesting rideshare regulations should include a centralized registry of drivers; consistent visual identification for vehicles; and in-car security cameras.
