Horgan, NDP feeling heat from taxi industry over ride-hailing decision
Credit to Author: Stephen Snelgrove| Date: Thu, 05 Sep 2019 02:38:38 +0000
VICTORIA — Transportation Minister Claire Trevena fired off a letter this week to the Passenger Transportation Board, warning that its decision to open up ride-hailing could cause “serious economic dislocation” in the taxi industry.
She strongly suggested the board conduct a “timely” review of the decision to allow ride-hailing companies into the market without any limit on the size of their fleets.
This despite NDP-authored legislation establishing the board as an independent tribunal, insulated from political interference.
Hence the minister’s clumsy insistence that applying political pressure on the board was the farthest thing from her mind.
“Please note,” she wrote in a passage that did protest too much, “this letter is intended to show support for the consideration of these concerns and should not be taken as a general policy directive.”
The directive that was not a directive — perish the thought! — was sent Tuesday. On the Friday before, taxi industry representatives had vented their concerns to Geoff Meggs, chief of staff to Premier John Horgan.
The industry rightly believes it helped to elect NDP MLAs in Metro Vancouver in the last election.
Heading its current list of concerns was last month’s decision by the transportation board to put “no initial limits on fleet size” for ride-hailing companies entering the market.
Instead the board will “monitor” the implementation of ride-hailing. “As data becomes available fleet size may be reassessed. A cap will depend on issues such as congestion.”
The board found no particular rush to establish caps, citing the NDP decision to require would-be ride-hailing drivers to secure Class 4 licences. Those being harder to get and more expensive, the requirement should act as a barrier to entry.
“It takes years for services to ramp up,” wrote the board. “This will be especially the case with the Class 4 driver’s licence requirement.”
All in keeping with the recommendations earlier this year from an all-party committee of the legislature. It, too, recommended no caps, so it can hardly have come as a surprise to New Democrats that the board reached a similar conclusion.
But Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth immediately complained about the lack of caps, predicting it would result in road congestion. Citizens’ Services Minister Jinny Sims professed to be “shocked” the board did impose a cap.
Her Surrey riding could be vulnerable to activists in the taxi industry, who soon began speculating about exacting revenge on the Horgan government by recalling some of its MLAs.
Not likely. But the industry mustered sympathy with some Metro Vancouver mayors, who were soon fretting about congestion in terms that suggested it would be snarling the roads practically overnight once ride-hailing companies enter the market.
The industry has also been hedging its bet in court this week, seeking judicial review of the board decision.
But the Trevena letter made it clear that potential traffic congestion was not the prime mover in persuading her to go after the transportation board. Rather it was concern about the economic well-being of the taxi industry itself.
“You stated that while there are no limits on fleet size at this point, the board will monitor performance data and may review fleet sizes when data is available,” she wrote in her letter to board chair Catharine Read.
“You also note that one of your policy principles is that negative impacts on taxi (industry) should be minimized where possible.”
Then the passage that was not to be mistaken for a directive: “It is our government’s view that this decision should be reviewed in a timely way to ensure the viability of the taxi industry alongside (ride-hailing) services and that the taxi industry does not experience serious economic dislocation before a supply or cap decision occurs.”
Only then did Trevena acknowledge the potential increase in congestion on “already clogged roads” as a secondary concern.
Read is an NDP appointee, named chair of the board for a three-year term (with a $625 per diem) by Trevena herself back in 2017.
But she is also independent in law, which is something the New Democrats themselves boasted about in passing the revised enabling legislation for the board last year.
The B.C. Liberals, who spent several years in thrall to the taxi industry, mocked the notion that the board would be independent of political pressures.
But that insinuation had Trevena firing back with all of the righteousness she could muster.
“I question the assumption that there is a theoretical independence,” she told the house last November.
“We believe in the independence of bodies such as the independent Passenger Transportation Board. This is something that our government thinks is very important, to have independent tribunals, such as the Passenger Transportation Board, working on behalf of the public good to support good governance.”
Of course that was before the taxi industry started calling in markers and New Democrats began running for cover.
Joining the rush was Premier John Horgan himself. In a letter released late Wednesday, he urged the taxi industry to “work closely with the board. … the sooner the board has reliable data, the sooner it can make evidence-based decisions.”
Precisely how that data could be assembled before even one driver is approved to provide ride-hailing services in B.C. Horgan didn’t say.
But the premier’s letter, like the minister’s, left no doubt that the New Democrats are feeling political heat from the powerful and well connected taxi industry.
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