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Mississauga mayor says Uber could be allowed 'as soon as September'
Uber could be back in Mississauga by fall: Crombie

cp24.com
May 13, 2016
By Chris Fox, CP24.com

Mississauga Mayor Bonnie Crombie says that Uber could be back in business “as soon as September,” despite a recent vote by city council to ban the service.

On Wednesday, council voted in favour of a motion that requires that all transportation companies “obtain a broker licence and operate using only licensed taxi and limousine drivers, operating licensed taxi and limousine vehicles.”

The vote had the effect of banning service like Uber X, wherein drivers use their own personal vehicles to pick up fares, but on Friday Crombie told CP24 that “it is not quite what it seems.”

In fact, Crombie said that a vote by council to strike a working committee to develop a possible pilot project for ridesharing means that Uber could be back operating in Mississauga by the fall.

“They could be operating as soon as September given the right circumstances,” she said. “If they cease operations, by the fall we might have a pilot project up and running where we can create the regulations that are right for us.”

The working committee will be made of representatives from Mississauga city council as well as the taxi industry and Uber.

The mandate of the working committee will be to “develop the terms of reference for a limited one-year pilot program” that would determine how services like UberX “could operate within the Mississauga marketplace.”

“We have heard from our residents that they want choice. This (Uber) is very popular especially among young people but we want to do it the right way,” Crombie told CP24 on Friday. “That is why we are doing our homework to find a solution that works for us.”