Ontario to review “rideshare framework”
CTA says any review must prioritize passenger safety, crime prevention
“The Canadian Taxi Association welcomes a review of Ontario’s ground transportation framework, which includes passenger safety, consumer protection, crime prevention, and law enforcement, and which bases decisions on evidence.
Ontario’s law enforcement agencies and justice ministries MUST be engaged-partners in any review – not bystanders.
Every form of ground transportation – taxis, limousines, and U.S.-based app companies – now uses apps. Innovation cannot be an excuse to dilute crime-prevention and public-safety duties for any operator, including our own members.”
Ontario announced it will review “standardization of rideshare guidelines” across the province in its November Economic Statement.
Ironically included under the heading “Building Transit,” the brief mention reads:
“Ontario is working to engage with rideshare operators, the taxi sector, and municipalities to explore the standardization of rideshare guidelines across the province. Rules for rideshare programs, such as application fees and driver screening requirements, are currently managed by individual municipalities, resulting in differing standards across the province. By consulting on potential approaches for a provincial rideshare framework, the government continues to support an integrated and efficient transportation network that will improve access for everyone, including rural and remote communities such as those along the Northlander route.”
Canadian Taxi Association president Marc Andre Way maintains that any review must be focused on passenger safety, consumer protection and crime prevention above all else before services can be standardized or expanded.
“We are shocked, frankly, to see Ontario referring to integrating and expanding access to services before addressing the most fundamental passenger safety issues that these services have compromised,” notes Way, whose campaign for improved visual identification of professional ground transportation vehicles received national coverage in the past year.
The Canadian Taxi Association’s position statement on consultations and review reads,
“The Canadian Taxi Association welcomes a review of Ontario’s ground transportation framework, which includes passenger safety, consumer protection, crime prevention, and law enforcement, and which bases decisions on evidence.
Ontario’s law enforcement agencies and justice ministries MUST be engaged-partners in any review – not bystanders.
Every form of ground transportation – taxis, limousines, and U.S.-based app companies – now uses apps. Innovation cannot be an excuse to dilute crime-prevention and public-safety duties for any operator, including our own members.”
Among many thousands of reports of crime facilitated by unmarked or poorly marked vehicles, three that stand out starkly are the Peel Region sexual assaults committed by a man pretending to be an Uber driver, and the Uber driver who pulled away from a Toronto home last March with a little girl asleep on the back bench (Uber refused to provide Toronto police with the driver’s cell phone number).
“Before 2014, Ontario’s ground-transportation and visual-identification rules were clear, stringent, and built over decades of hard experience. We abandoned those rules without any discussion on safety. That was a huge mistake we cannot afford to make again: if Ontario is reviewing ground transportation, it must start with passenger safety, consumer protection and crime prevention,” Way stresses.
