Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Toronto: Toronto’s top cop will sit down with the city’s taxi and limo industry Friday following disruptive day-long protests yesterday.
The closed-door meeting will take place inside Chief Mark Saunders’ office at police headquarters on College Street at noon.
Who will be representing the industry was not immediately clear, though speculation indicated that it may be Sam Moini, a taxi fleet operator and sometimes spokesperson for the Toronto Taxi Alliance.
It was also not immediately clear if Mayor John Tory – who brokered the meeting Wednesday afternoon – would be in attendance.
The meeting follows a series of anti-Uber protests in Toronto that began early Wednesday morning and culminated with angry taxi and limo drivers occupying a downtown intersection for several hours.
The protest was organized in an effort to draw attention to what taxi and limo drivers claim is an unfair system currently in place that heavily regulates them while allowing Uber to compete for consumer dollars in violation of existing bylaws.
The city has previously said that it is working as fast as possible to create a fair playing field to incorporate all ground transportation vehicles – including ridesharing services such as Uber.
In a statement provided to CP24 Tuesday night, Uber spokesperson Susie Heath said that the company believes there is room for both traditional ground transportation providers and services such as Uber ‘to serve the different transit needs of Torontonians.’
“Our focus remains on working with city officials to update regulations that allow for innovation and choice in Toronto which will benefit all participants in the ground transportation market,” Heath said.
At city hall today, Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti said he intended to put forward a motion calling for a moratorium on taxi licensing fees until the new legislation is created.
The motion would also call for the enforcement of the city’s bylaws, which Uber drivers are currently violating.
In a written statement released to media Thursday afternoon, a spokesperson with Beck Taxi admitted that the industry didn’t show its best side Wednesday.
“We know the taxi industry didn’t put its best foot forward yesterday, but the anger expressed didn’t come from nowhere,” Kristine Hubbard said.
“Taxi drivers’ frustration boiled over yesterday. They vented their anger. While Beck asked drivers several times not to participate in actions that would inconvenience Torontonians, many exercised their right to participate. We won’t blame them for that, but we are sorry for any inconvenience that was caused by the disruption.”
