THUNDER BAY -- A taxi company leader says the city's proposal to remove the cap on the registered number of taxi vehicles would not only "destroy the industry" but by the time the ride's over, the policy could deliver his company a monopoly.
In a deputation before city council on Monday, Roach's Taxi general manager Dennis LeBeau urged city council not to pass a proposed taxi bylaw that has taken five years to write.
LeBeau challenged the proposal's central pillar, which would allow for an unlimited number of vehicles to be licensed as taxis. He conceded wait times for taxis in the city are too long and that more licenses are needed but he encouraged council to wade slowly and carefully into expanding licenses rather than diving in headfirst.
"If the city wants to issue another 30 licenses,that's dandy -- or 35," he said. "We just don't want to see a system that's wide open that's disrupting the taxi industry we already have."
Rideshare programs like Uber have successfully disrupted the industry in urban centres, as the app-based systems have not been required to become licensed brokers. LeBeau argued connecting riders to drivers through an app should not be legally different than a telephone call to a taxi dispatch, which then calls out to a driver over a radio frequency.
When asked about Uber specifically, however, LeBeau expressed, "we have no fear of them." He speculated it would take millions of dollars and decades of investment to entrench a presence like Roach's has in Thunder Bay. He believes rideshare programs' drivers exhibit selective and inconsistent service in both clientele and hours worked.
"If 100 people want to go out and test the taxi business -- buy licenses -- they can run around during the day. The lineups will still be there at night because they won't be out there doing that," he said.
"They'll pick and choose who they give the rides to and it will cause us some undue hardship but I'm absolutely certain that in the end, we'll be victorious and probably end up with total control of the industry."
At the same time, Roach's has trouble attracting drivers willing to work nights.
"It's tough out there. They get kicked and spit on and called names. There's a lot of things that happen to them," LeBeau said.
"I've had drivers slashed with knives, robberies are the least of our problems. My philosophy there is, give them the money. Give them the car. Who cares? It's money... It's not worth your life."
Council tasked city administration with resolving a number of challenges LeBeau expressed in his deputation.
"Stability is the prime motivator for the issuing of taxi licenses, for ensuring the employees are well-compensated, that the companies can remain sustainable," said Coun. Iain Angus
"And that anything you can do that upsets that apple cart, over time, will result in what we saw happen in the bus industry, where small communities lost the bus service, where in deregulation of the airline industry, communities like Dryden lost out big time."
Red River Coun. Brian McKinnon oversaw the taxi bylaw's consultation. He said that process balanced the concerns of established business alongside policy discussions with five municipalities, including Toronto and Waterloo. When administration returns the proposed bylaw on May 29, he's confident it will stimulate competition while allowing established companies to operate.
"I don't want to denigrate anyone who's very concerned about their business -- and they are concerned. We knew that when we met with them on these previous occasions. They gave us their input. We accepted all that," McKinnon said.
"The game has changed. Now, are they going to change with the game? I think so. I think at the end of the day, we'll rewrite this thing and it's going to turn out okay for everybody."
