City lawmakers voted in favour of the newly updated vehicles-for-hire bylaw at Monday's meeting. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

In the chambers

City’s taxi, ride-share bylaw finally moves into fast lane

Dec 10, 2019 | 4:59 PM

Honk! Honk!

There may be more different types of vehicles-for-hire on the roads of North Battleford in the future now that the city has passed its new bylaw governing taxis and ride-share services.

City lawmakers finally gave the green light to the bylaw to offer residents more options when they need a ride, and provide an opportunity in case a ride-share service wants to start here in the future.

“The amendments for the Vehicles-for-Hire bylaw were really brought on by new provincial legislation to accommodate ride-sharing services,” Mayor Ryan Bater said following council’s meeting Monday. “We wanted to modernize our existing bylaw. Previously, we had a bylaw that pertained only to taxis or limousines, so now we’ve included network transportation vehicles; most people would know that as companies like Uber or Lyft.”

He said now the bylaw has passed, it will clear the path for more transportation companies to operate in North Battleford. The city also lifted its cap on licences for taxis as well.

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“That’s a significant development which means the doors are also open for additional taxi companies to also do business in the city,” Bater said.

Council also approved a new policy introduced by City Planner Ryan Mackrell related to numbers of taxis and vehicles for hire that is now included in the bylaw.

It states a company needs council’s approval when applying for five or more business licences, but not for fewer than five. When applications have been approved, city administration will review vehicles-for-hire operations every six months for a total of two years to ensure they meet an acceptable quality of service. All applications from companies requesting to operate a business involving vehicles-for-hire must be approved by the city.

Coun. Kent Lindgren said it will be interesting to see the impact of the bylaw in a few years from now.

“It’s a quickly and rapidly changing industry so I hope we can stay on top of it,” he said.

Mayor Bater was also pleased to see the amended bylaw move ahead to allow residents more choices.

The bylaw also states all vehicles for hire, whether they are taxis, limousines or ride-share vehicles, require a business licence from the city.

As well, taxis and other transportation network vehicles are not permitted to be home-based businesses.

The bylaw indicates any vehicle-for-hire must not refuse a request for service from any potential passenger. If a ride is refused for a justifiable reason, whether the driver is in danger or there is another concern, it must be reported to the dispatcher and the city.

angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @OCoureurDesBois