Regina city committee rejects plan for seasonal taxi licences, other safety changes

A city committee has voted down a series of changes to Regina's taxicab bylawwith the major's sticking point being whether the city should award seasonal licences through a lottery system.

On Thursday, councillors on the community and protective services committee spent upwards of three hours debating theproposed change, going back and forth over concerns of fairness and potential impact to customer service.

Ultimately, the change along with other safety-related recommendations made in a review of the city's taxicab bylaw was defeated by a 3-2 vote.

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Councillors John Findura, Lori Bresciani and committee chairman Jerry Flegel voted against the proposal, while Andrew Stevens and Bob Hawkins voted in favour.

Other proposed changes in the bylaw review included:

• Lottery for seasonal taxiowner licences.
• Brokers have to submit driver hour logs to the city.
• In-car surveillance must record audio, capture footage from front exterior of vehicle.
• New guidelines for how many hoursdriver must use their licensed vehicle for a three-month period.
• New provision that drivers can refuse a trip for safety reasons.
• Each licensed taxi broker must have at least one accessible taxi available for dispatch at all times.
• Brokers must ensure computer dispatch systems can receive emergency button distress calls from drivers.
• New $100 passenger cleanup fee.

The city's proposal was to start issuing winter seasonal licencesbya lottery system for drivers instead of handing them directly to taxi brokers that distribute them.

According to a city report, the licences would have lasted three years and be useable from October to April. Anyone over the age of 18 with a Class 4 licence could have applied to have one of the 49 seasonallicences without industry experience.

Concerns over customer service

Longtime Co-op Taxi driver and owner Mike Sharma appeared before Thursday's committee as a delegate, warning that switching to alottery could lead to new, inexperienced drivers getting behind the wheel.

"In this business, or any other business, a person has to have some kind of experience to run it," he explained.

"[With] the lottery system, it'll be opening for every single persondoesn't matter where he lives in Canada, he lives in Regina or notso most of the people probably who win this lottery won't have any experience about it."

Sandy Archibald, manager of Regina Cabs, echoed a similarsentiment, saying the city's criteria for seasonal driver eligibility was too broad.

Bresciani agreed with concerns aboutthe lottery'slack of guarantee of experienced drivers. She saidthe city's industry deserves better than 18-year-olds driving cabs.

During Thursday's meeting, members of the city's administration cited that other jurisdictions with lottery systems have not encountered customer service problems.

They also referenced a recommended change that would require holders of seasonal licences to be the primary operator of the vehicle for a set number of hours in a three-month period in order to be allowed to drive.

Second defeat for drivers

Thursday was the second defeat for drivers who wanted a lottery system introduced.

After voting in favour of the switch in June 2016, council set the matter back to administration until the bylaw review was completed.

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Drivers like Idnan Bajwa are now left feeling frustrated.

"I think the City of Regina is a status quo city. They don't welcome the newcomers, new drivers, to live and participate in the economy," he said afterwards.

Archibald, on the other hand, welcomesthe city's decision, saying it will be good for business.

"From a broker's perspective, status quo gives us the ability to have predictability in the business. Predictability for supplying service, and I think those are good things."