At city council on Wednesday, Tory proposed an amendment to a motion that would order city lawyers to seek an injunction banning Uber, which in Toronto uses app-dispatched cabs, and UberX, where private citizens drive customers in their private vehicles.
Tory wants to add the words “under the appropriate circumstances,” which, he told council, means when city legal staff think they can win an injunction against the ride-hailing company. Uber has infuriated the taxi industry by taking a big chunk of business while not facing the same city fees and regulations.
Toronto’s previous push for an injunction against Uber, which connects drivers with customers via a Smartphone app, was tossed by a judge. In response, council last September tried to close the loopholes in anticipation of a renewed injunction attempt.
However, city licensing staff are drafting a new framework that would change the rules for taxis while legalizing and regulating “ground transportation providers” including Uber. Edmonton council recently passed a bylaw that has some common rules for taxis and Uber, such as insurance requirements, and some differences.
Tory told councillors that, based on advice given to in private by the city solicitor, he wants to give the city the legal flexibility to wait until after new proposed rules are unveiled in April and debated by council in May.
Councillor Jim Karygiannis, who has championed cabbies’ calls for an immediate injunction, urged Tory to include a specific deadline by which Uber must follow the same rules as taxi companies. They include regulated fares, vehicle safety checks and commercial insurance.
“We’re letting Uber get off the hook one more time,” said Karygiannis. “We’ve done everything that we must do in order to proceed and capture them, therefore delaying one more time is the 3-D approach: delay, deny until the (taxi) industry dies.”
Tory said losing an injunction application a second time would be bad for the city’s position, and that launching an injunction now would take months to get to court — after the new rules are unveiled.
He will support an injunction at the right time, the mayor vowed, suggesting the city should take action against any company that breaks the new rules after they are approved by council.
The debate will continue Wednesday, with a vote expected in late afternoon.
City council also passed, without debate, a recommendation from the integrity commissioner that Councillor Rob Ford be found to have broken the city code of conduct and be docked $900, about equivalent to three days’ pay.
Valerie Jepson’s report says that, by putting in his councillor newsletters an ad for a fundraising event to clear campaign debts for himself and his brother Doug, Rob Ford broke a ban on using city resources, including newsletters, for any election-campaign activity.
The motion approved by council says Ford will lose another $900 in pay if he refuses to divulge how much of his own money he spent on the newsletter.
Original Article
Source: thestar.com/
Author: David Rider
No comments:
Post a Comment