Edmonton on Wednesday became the first city in Canada to pass an Uber-friendly bylaw, giving the ride sharing company the opportunity to operate within the bounds of the law and opening up a legitimate market for a new insurance product.
Edmonton councillors voted 8-4 to allow Uber to obtain a license to operate in the city, under the proviso that it’s drivers acquire provincially approved insurance.
The race is now on to bring such an insurance product to market before a March 1 deadline imposed by the council. It is known that two insurers,
Aviva and
Intact, are working on products for the ride sharing industry, so it’s likely Uber will be banking on at least one of those companies to launch the product into Edmonton within the next several weeks.
Under the new bylaw, Uber can’t get a licence to operate without provincially approved insurance for its drivers, and an Uber driver caught without it could face a $5,000 fine. Edmonton is understood to be actively hiring bylaw officers to ensure enforcement.
“The leadership this city has shown to put forth Canada’s first progressive ride-sharing regulations is a great thing,” said Uber’s general manager for Alberta, Ramit Kar. “We have made some concessions in the bylaw but this is a workable framework… I’m optimistic on the insurance front and quite frankly, we’re going to be doing everything we can to be in compliance by March 1,”.he said.
Local taxi drivers protested the council vote on Wednesday, causing the session to be adjourned while police cleared the building after tensions between the taxi drivers and Uber flowed over.
