By Olivia D’Orazio
Toronto’s taxi drivers received yet another blow Wednesday in their ongoing fight with Uber, as city council voted 32-12 in favour of amending bylaws to accommodate Uber.
There was good news for brokers, however, with strong indication those changes will include commercial insurance requirements for Uber drivers when city staff present them too council for vote in the spring.
Councillors passed a second motion asking Uber to suspend its Toronto operations until those bylaw changes are finalized.
“Uber's not going away, we can't just dig our heels in and pretend they don't exist,” said Coun. Mary-Margaret McMahon, who supported the motion brought forward by Mayor John Tory. “Torontonians want them and so in my opinion we need to regulate them.”
However, not everyone shared McMahon’s sentiments. Taxi drivers Sajid Mughal and Muhammad Butt expressed their frustration at the ruling to the CBC, though a spokesperson for the Toronto Taxi Alliance had a different perspective.
"We are pleased that Toronto council voted against a two-tier system for transportation services and rejected the creation of Transportation Network Companies," said Sam Moini, a spokesperson for the organization. "We encourage the Toronto Police Service and Licensing bylaw officers to begin aggressive enforcement of the city's by-laws, which will now capture UberX.”
Insurance was a major point of contention at past city council meetings on the subject, including one in mid-September that was called to discuss a staff report issued by Municipal Licensing and Standards. That report contained an original proposal for the city to formally regulate Uber and required the ride-sharing organization to “obtain insurance coverage at a similar level to taxicabs and limousines that is sufficient to protect the drivers of and individuals using private vehicles-for-hire.”
