Toronto flies up its own arsehole
Blaming drivers for the problems it created
The City of Toronto has finally flown in so many nonsensical circles, it has flown up its own rectum.
This special talent is attributed to the Oozlum Bird of British and Australian folklore. The Oozlum Bird is famed for flying backward in order to both admire its own feathers, and to see where it has been.
When startled, the Oozlum flies in shrinking circular loops until it completely disappears up its own bumhole, surely a rare and valuable accomplishment.
On July 27, Dev Benham of Licensing and Standards’ “Dedicated Enforcement Department” sent a letter to Toronto Taxi brokerages complaining about the recent conduct of Taxi drivers at entertainment venues including “soliciting passengers, refusing fares, aggressive behavior towards the public and venue staff.”
All of these behaviours are unprofessional and illegal and should be halted immediately, of course. There is no responsible member of the Taxi industry that would disagree with the fact that these are all activities which should be enforced against and ended as quickly as possible.
However, of course, there is also no responsible member of the Taxi industry who did not warn Toronto a decade ago that these behaviours would be the inevitable result of allowing open entry to the ground transportation market and ending the cap the number of professional drivers. A city that used to have 5,500 ground transportation drivers now has about 80,000; that desperate reality changes everything.
So now, in 2026, there are about 16 drivers scrambling to earn a living wage for every single driver Toronto allowed to drive for money in 2015. All 16 of those drivers have bills to pay; families to feed; vehicles to maintain; and insurance payments to make. Probably it’s fair to estimate they are then 16 times more aggressive; 16 times more committed to soliciting passengers before a competing driver gets to them; and 16 times less willing to take a short fare which actually costs them money to provide.
Blaming working drivers – Taxi and rideshare – for this situation raises victim-blaming to an artform.
Reading Dev Benham’s letter, I had the fanciful idea that perhaps we should divide Dev’s job and paycheque into 16 parts and hire 15 other people (in addition to Dev, of course) to do the work and also try to live on 1/16th of a paycheque.
Apparently, the salary range for a Senior Level District Manager at MLS is $111,000 to $145,000 per year, while top earners can reach up to $165,000 with bonuses. Even assuming Dev had to split $165,000 with 15 other bureaucrats, they’d each be trying to live on $10,312 annually instead of $165,000.
In that poverty-stricken scenario, some of the 15 new bureaucrats and Dev might get a little aggressive and less willing to serve too.
Taxi News sent some questions to Dev Benham, which were promptly and professionally answered by Mahreen Dasoo, Senior Communications Advisor, Media Relations for the City of Toronto.
In particular, I was curious to know if this official, on-the-record letter by Dev Benham was going to serve as Toronto’s acknowledgement that open entry was a mistake and is finally going to be revisited. Alas, such is not the case as Ms. Dasoo writes,
“The email focused specifically on driver conduct and does not signal any consideration of changes to driver caps or changes to the vehicle-for-hire licensing framework.”
It’s too bad that Toronto does not see, or chooses not to see, that having 80,000 drivers instead of 5,500 drivers is in fact the very cause of all the behaviours that were the topic of Dev Benham’s letter.
Ms. Dasoo goes on to state,
“The email sent on Monday, July 27 reflects the City’s ongoing efforts to collaborate with the taxi industry and ensure drivers can continue providing high-quality service to residents and visitors and support a safe, professional and respectful experience for everyone using vehicle-for-hire services in Toronto.”
This statement represents gaslighting of the highest order. I am very certain that in every conversation or “effort to collaborate with the taxi industry” Toronto undertakes, the Taxi industry representative says that the first, highest, most obvious and easiest solution to challenges like poor driver behaviour is to PUT A CAP ON THE NUMBER OF VEHICLES FOR HIRE ON THE ROAD.
Until Toronto faces reality, ends open entry, and caps the number of VFH, these issues will only get worse. Poor driver behaviour; the collapse of on-demand Wheelchair Accessible Services; endless gridlock, congestion and emissions; and drivers living on poverty wages are all the result of allowing open entry and unlimited numbers of VFH. By demanding the Taxi industry address a problem created and institutionalized by the very staff who are now writing threatening letters, Toronto ignores the obvious solution in order to fly right up its own bumhole, blaming the victims and attempting to gaslight the industry.
*****
Taxi News will have more coverage of the July 27th letter in the days ahead.
