EDMONTON - A plan to issue 100 new taxi licences should speed ahead because it is essential to ensure cabs can drop and pick up customers at the international airport, city council’s executive committee says.
The committee, which includes Mayor Stephen Mandel, decided Wednesday to override objections from the city’s taxi commission.
The commission last week balked at the proposal, worried that the selection criteria for the new licences was being pushed through without enough public consultation.
Currently, cabs that take people from the city to the international airport, which is in Leduc County, are not allowed to pick up passengers heading to Edmonton. Similarly, cabs that bring people from the airport are not supposed to pick up passengers in the city. That situation, called dead heading in industry parlance, is a result of an exclusive 2006 contract with Leduc-based company Airport Taxis.
Coun. Amarjeet Sohi and city administrators said the airport agreed to sign its next contract with Edmonton taxis, but in return the city needs to issue 100 new plates. Officials said the meter is running on council’s time to proceed with that plan.
“I think it means improved taxi service, less deadheading and increased satisfaction,” said Sohi, who has been working to solve the problem for several years. “Hopefully, once the contract is finalized we will have enhanced taxi services.”
There are about 1,200 licensed taxis in Edmonton. The last time the city issued new licences was in 2007, when it released 35 plates specifically for vehicles to serve people with disabilities.
The council committee did tweak the criteria for the 100 licence lottery so that anyone who already owns a licence to operate a taxi anywhere in Alberta will be ineligible for one of the 100 new plates. Some drivers and cab company operators worried that the originally proposed rules prevented existing Edmonton licence holders from applying, but opened it up to licence holders from other cities. The rules also require anyone applying for a licence to have been working in the industry for the last 12 months and have a connection with an Edmonton broker.
Council still must give its final blessing to the plan at its next meeting Feb. 1.
Some drivers at Wednesday’s meeting said they still have reservations. Manjinder Punia, for example, said he was there to speak on behalf of people who already own a licence and want to be included in the lottery.
But Balraj Manhas, president of the United Cabbies Association of Edmonton, which represents about 960 members, said the committee made the right decision. “It means the airport stand will open up to Edmonton taxis,” Manhas said. “We have been bringing this issue up for the last five years. It’s not been rushed.”
Wednesday’s debate also raised questions about the future of Edmonton’s taxi commission. Manhas, for example, argued the commission should be disbanded in favour of a less powerful advisory committee.
Sohi said it was frustrating that the taxi commission refused to honour the wishes of council when it came to the 100 new licences.
“The commission in its current form is very ineffective and doesn’t represent the interests of the industry,” Sohi said, arguing it doesn’t make sense to have a group overseeing taxi that cannot have representatives from the industry.
Chris Leahey was the only member of the taxi commission to attend Wednesday’s meeting. Commission members are frustrated by council’s perceived rushing of the issue, he said.
Mandel said a report on the future of the taxi commission, as well as a range of issues related to vehicles for hire in Edmonton, will be coming before council in the next couple of months.
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