VFH companies should provide emergency contact info

Missing child case, Colle’s motion result in Council debate

Nine years after Toronto re-wrote its ground transportation by-laws to virtually eliminate passenger safety and consumer protection, Councillor Mike Colle has moved an urgent motion to make all Vehicle for Hire companies provide contact information for emergencies. The urgent motion without notice passed late April 24th.

Colle’s motion is the result of an alarming incident which took place last winter, when an Uber driver inadvertently drove away with a child sleeping on the back bench of his van.

The child’s mother, Julia Viscomi, frantically contacted Uber customer service but was told the driver’s cell number could not be provided as that would violate Uber’s privacy policy. Uber also refused to give the driver’s number to Toronto police, which eventually located the driver and the unharmed little girl by sending out 68 cop cars to find the Uber van.

The motion will pertain mainly to rideshare firms like Uber, Lyft and HOVR as Taxi brokerages already provide telephone service to a live operator.

Regarding his April 24th Council motion, Colle told the CBC, “We’re going to ask them to basically alter the rules, or we may make changes to compel them to basically change their rules for emergency safety reasons. This type of thing could happen to any of us … the police should be able to contact these drivers in case there’s an emergency situation.”

Colle’s motion says the city’s current regulatory framework doesn’t provide any remedy to passengers in an emergency, nor any penalty for operators. The requested review would look at the current rules and recommend additional licensing requirements for vehicle-for-hire companies and drivers.

The City’s Licensing and Standards division spent over a year in 2023-24 reviewing various elements of By-Law 546, which regulates ground transportation, but passenger safety and consumer protection were not included as part of that review.

Below is the full text of Councillor Colle’s Urgent Motion without Notice:

MM29.22 – Requiring Vehicle-For-Hire Companies to Provide Emergency Driver Contact Information to Customers and Toronto Police Services – by Councillor Mike Colle, seconded by Councillor Frances Nunziata

Status: AdoptedWards: All

Caution: Motions are shown below. Any motions should not be considered final until the meeting is complete, and the decisions for this meeting have been confirmed.

Recommendations

Councillor Mike Colle, seconded by Councillor Frances Nunziata, recommends that:

1. City Council direct the Executive Director, Municipal Licensing and Standards in consultation with the City Solicitor and the Toronto Police Service to consult with Vehicle-For-Hire Industry and recommend any changes to Toronto Municipal Code Chapter 546 that could require licensees to take greater accountability to directly assist customers and law enforcement in emergency situations in an urgent manner; and whether such requirements could become a condition of licenses to the satisfaction of the Executive Director, Municipal Licencing and Standards.

Background Information (City Council)

Member Motion MM29.22
https://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2025/mm/bgrd/backgroundfile-254892.pdf

Motions (City Council)

Motion to Adopt Item (Carried)

Motion to Introduce Motion without Notice moved by Councillor Mike Colle (Carried)

That Councillor Mike Colle be permitted to add to the agenda of today’s meeting an urgent Motion without Notice concerning: 

Requiring Vehicle-For-Hire Companies to Provide Emergency Driver Contact Information to Customers and Toronto Police Services

Reason for Urgency: 

This Motion is urgent due to the already demonstrated and possibly imminent danger to Vehicle-For-Hire customers if this risk remains unaddressed in the City of Toronto’s regulatory framework governing Vehicle-For-Hire companies and drivers.