Toronto council set for another taxi plate vote after fierce lobbying

Mayor John Tory signals he wants to stick with last year’s reforms and owner-operated cabs, after a licensing committee vote to return to a two-tiered system.

Thestar.com
May 4, 2015
By Betsy Powell and Jennifer Pagliaro

The mayor’s office appears poised to buck an intense lobbying effort to undo the new way Toronto’s taxis are licensed.

After years of costly consultations and review, council last year introduced a licensing regime to replace Standard plates with a new Toronto Taxi Licence (TTL) meant solely for owner-operated cabs.

Standard plate owners - most whom never get behind the wheel of a cab - vigorously opposed the change, arguing it would significantly devalue their lucrative investment.

But after last fall’s municipal election, opponents got another kick at the can before receptive councillors on the city’s licensing committee.

This week, that committee is asking council to reinstate Standard licences. Critics say a reversal of last year’s decision would kill the goal of making the system fairer by putting more money in drivers’ pockets and expanding the number of wheelchair-accessible cabs.

In a speech to the Toronto Region Board of Trade on Monday, Mayor John Tory signalled he won’t support the licensing committee’s request, which would be the “legislative equivalent of sticking our head in the sand.”

“The battle isn’t over standard licences. Not even close,” Tory said. “It’s about responding to shifting demands and making room for disruptive technologies like Uber and Lyft, while ensuring taxis are properly regulated and that the public is protected.”

Sources say the mayor will support a motion to defer the issue until after a court decides whether to grant the city an injunction to shut down all of Uber’s operations.

“We can deal with taxi reform on a piecemeal basis, or we can stand up for the paying public, do the right thing and say, ‘Let’s look at the industry as a whole,’” Tory told his Monday morning audience.

Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong introduced a similar motion last month that failed 17 to 24. Tory was absent for the vote because he was attending a police board meeting.

Tory’s remarks Monday follow weeks of fierce lobbying at city hall.

Sussex Strategy Group, a firm that represents the Toronto Taxi Alliance - the group representing large brokerages and Standard plate owners - has been the most visible.

Since mid-January, Sussex lobbyist Jamie Besner has had 89 meetings with councillors or their staff, according to the lobbyist registry. Most were members of the licensing committee. Besner had 20 meetings with chair Councillor Cesar Palacio or one of his staff, 15 meetings with Councillor Frank Di Giorgio’s office and 10 with newbie Councillor Jim Karygiannis.

On the other side, Amarjeet Chhabra - who represents the iTaxiworkers Association, made up mostly of drivers - and others working in the industry have had nearly 90 meetings with councillors.

At city hall, there has also been a lot of talk about campaign donations made by the taxi industry in the run-up to last year’s election.

The Star compared the lists of 2014 campaign donations for councillors who sit on the licensing committee to a database of taxi plate owners.

Several councillors on the committee appear to have received donations from many taxi plate owners. And while those donations don’t break election rules, they have raised eyebrows at city hall.

Twenty per cent of Karygiannis’s donors - more than 50 - appeared to be taxi plate owners. Deputy Mayor Glenn De Baeremaker’s short list of donations shows that a third of his donors are plate owners. Palacio and Di Giorgio’s lists also show matches with the owners database.

The four councillors defended those donations, saying there was nothing untoward nor did the donations influence their decision.

“My position on taxi reform is very well known, and people who own plates support my position,” said De Baeremaeker.

Other taxi industry donors point out they couldn’t possibly have known at the time who would be appointed to the licensing committee. Di Giorgio and Palacio were on the licensing committee last term.

In the meantime, the most important stakeholder in the revived debate continues to get overlooked, says Minnan-Wong, who led previous taxi reforms through council.

“It’s always a fight between owners and drivers and agents and money, and far too often the guy who’s the most important person - the customer - is never considered in the equation,” says Minnan-Wong.

The public is best served when taxis are driven by their owners, he adds.

Owners tend to keep their vehicles cleaner and provide better customer service, he says. And if the reforms remain in effect, the middlemen who have profited handsomely by managing plates for owners would eventually disappear.

“If you put more money in the driver’s pocket, you get a better driver.”