City of Guelph to take over licensing of taxis

GuelphMercury.com
Sept. 28, 2016
By Doug Hallett  

A new report recommending that city hall take over licensing of taxis from the Guelph Police Service is expected to pave the way for the city to deal with the legality of the Uber ride-hailing service.

The city staff report, which goes to a meeting of council’s Committee of the Whole on Monday, recommends transferring the administration and enforcement of a couple of police board bylaws to the city. This means city hall would take over licensing of taxicabs, limousines, second-hand goods vendors, salvage yards and shops, and gold and jewelry dealers.

Mayor Cam Guthrie has said moving taxi licences so that they fall under the jurisdiction of city hall would allow the city to grapple with the Uber issue.

Uber Canada began operating in Guelph, Waterloo Region, Hamilton and London on the same day in late July of 2015, with only a few hours notice given by the company before the start. So far, Guelph hasn’t changed its taxi regulations, “meaning Uber is technically not yet licensed” to operate in the city, Guthrie said in an interview in August.

The new report recommends that after the city takes over licensing of taxis and the second hand good industries, a review be conducted of these business areas that includes public consultation.

Guelph has been slow to deal with the legality of Uber, because the city is unusual in having taxis licensed by the police department rather than by city hall.

“We’ve heard from the Guelph Police Service that administering, monitoring and enforcing the licensing is not a core duty of a police service,” Doug Godfrey, the city’s acting manager of operations, said in a news release.

“In fact, Guelph is one of only a handful of municipalities in Ontario continuing to delegate its authority to police services,” said Godfrey. “With a mandate to license businesses in Guelph, the city is in a position to take on these licensing duties.”

Each year, the city processes about 1,500 business licenses, while the Guelph Police Service processes about 500 business licenses for the taxi and second hand good industries.

If council approves the new report’s recommendations, the city would assume responsibility for the Guelph Police Service’s licensing starting Jan. 1. Enforcement would fall to the city’s bylaw compliance staff.

Unlike many of the current business licenses administered by the city, the application process for taxi drivers requires the applicant to submit a vulnerable sector criminal record check, the new report says. Because the city won’t have the same access to these records as police do, applicants for taxi driver licences will have to get a vulnerable sector criminal record check from police “at an additional cost of $45,” the report says.

As well, there will be new photo ID rules when the city takes over. Photo identification is required as part of the taxicab driver licence, and police currently allow applicant to provide their own photos. “This has resulted in a photo identification system which lacks consistency, clarity and in some instances may also reveal other individuals in the background of the photo, lending itself to privacy issues,” the report says.

When the city takes over, it says, taxi licence applicants will be required to submit passport-size photos with their licence application, as is currently the case with other licensing sectors needing photo ID under the city’s bylaw.

Part of the proposed review of the city’s business licensing bylaw will be coordinated with work currently underway at city hall related to the so-called shared economy, which includes ride-hailing services such as Uber that compete with taxis.

“In Guelph, shared economy – often used to describe economic and social activity involving online transactions – includes talent marketplace (e.g., TaskIT - a service allowing users to access IT assistance through an application based system), drive share (e.g., Uber), parking (e.g., Rover) and lodging (e.g., Airbnb),” the report says.

Last spring, council told city staff to review the section of the city’s licensing bylaw related to bed-and-breakfasts. This followed complaints from at least one local B&B about the licensing requirements in Guelph for B&Bs, which aren’t faced by people providing temporary accommodations arranged using the Airbnb website. At the same time, council agreed to have city hall take a broader look at the impact on the city of so-called disruptive technologies and the shared economy

The city, along with several municipalities and community partners, is currently developing and testing a replicable template or ‘how-to’ guide to influence local sharing economy policies and regulatory framework, the release said. This proposed approach was introduced and endorsed at a Large Urban Mayor’s Caucus of Ontario meeting in August.

After that meeting, Guthrie told the Mercury Tribune that he personally views the shared economy favourably. “The shared economy, to me, is probably one of the most capitalist, free enterprise initiatives that we have ever seen,” he said.