US firms dictate Canadian passenger safety rules
Experience: recognizing a mistake the second time you make it
When John Tory re-wrote Toronto’s Taxi by-law to give Uber special privileges in 2016, professionals who care and worry about passenger safety were aghast.
In one fell swoop, virtually all of the elements considered necessary for the safety of passengers riding in a vehicle for hire were abandoned.
These elements included visual identifiers like roof lights; a metal plate affixed to the trunk of the vehicle; the same plate number painted on both sides of vehicle; and the same plate number displayed inside the vehicle with the tariff card and the driver’s identification.
The coup de grace, of course, was the city-mandated security camera which recorded footing accessible only to police, in the event it was needed. These cameras cost about $1600 each and in 2015, Toronto councillors were adamant that they were necessary to ensure passenger safety.
All that was pre-Uber and “ridesharing,” of course. Fast forward to 2025, and as it turns out Toronto believes vehicles for hire don’t need ANY of those things. Unmarked cars displaying zero visual identifiers ply downtown streets with impunity; Councillor Paula Fletcher has noted how disturbing it is to see unmarked cars, pulling u-turns and blocking bike lanes, scooping people up on downtown streets.
The disappearance of a five year old girl in March of this year might have caught the attention of some officials, mainly because when an Uber driver inadvertently pulled away from her family home with the sleeping girl in his back seat, Uber refused to provide his cell phone number to the girls mother OR to Toronto Police, who were frantically searching for her.
Toronto Police Services eventually dispatched 68 cars to locate the Uber driver’s vehicle, which they managed to accomplish in fairly short order using the oldest of technologies: the police officer’s eyes, scanning the streets of west Toronto until they found the Uber driver’s van. That was some kind of miracle, and kudos to Toronto police.
Kudos also to Councillor Mike Colle, who introduced a motion at April 23rd Council to require Vehicle for Hire firms to provide driver contact information to police when they ask for it. Colle’s motion included direction to staff to consult with Vehicle for Hire stakeholders to develop this new plan.
Taxi industry members including the Canadian Taxi Association are keen to be part of this consultation: CTA would like to see cities across Canada re-evaluate the stunning decision to allow VFH to operate with massively sub-standard vehicle identification requirements.
Unfortunately, reliable sources tell Taxi News that Toronto is gearing up to meet with Uber and Lyft to discuss this situation, with no indication that the “stakeholders” involved in the consultations will include the Taxi industry OR the police.
In other word, missing kids or no missing kids, Toronto is at risk of making the same mistake in 2025 that it made in 2016: throw away everything police, government regulators and Taxi industry professionals have learned over centuries about passenger safety, and allow American corporations with no investment in Canadian well-being to write the rules.
I grew up with the American quip “Experience is recognizing a mistake the second time you make it.” Toronto should take this golden opportunity to avoid making the same mistake twice.
