Council to review taxi regulations

Leamington council has voted to have administration bring further reports on the current taxi by-laws in Leamington after a lengthy discussion at the July 9 meeting.

Administration brought forth four options for council to choose from:

Option#1 — that the current taxi by-law and regulations continues as is.

Option #2 — Repeal the by-law altogether.

Option #3 — Repeal the by-law, but require taxi companies to register with the municipality to better regulate safety.

Option #4 — Bring forward a further report on the by-law before coming to a conclusion.

Councillor Heather Latam said she had some concerns with some of the options.

“A regulated taxi driver is vetted and I know they’ve been licensed. I feel safer.” she said. “The current cab situation in Leamington — where they park and they wait — that stresses me out. It just seems unsafe.”

Councillor Tim Wilkinson said he’d vote for Option #3, which would deregulate the taxis for the most part.

“It’s a booming, invaluable service,” he said. “We tried our best to perfect it.”

Wilkinson said he’s had these conversations at the Police Services Board level and with the by-law department.

“The ghost taxi industry in this town is rampant and they tell me they can’t do anything about it unless they are caught red-handed exchanging cash inside the vehicle,” he added. “So for me, it’s Option #3.”

Councillor Paul Tiessen agreed somewhat with Councillor Wilkinson, saying that the taxi thing has been a thorn in council’s side for some time now.

“I still think we do need some regulation,” he said. “If we leave the vetting up to the taxi companies, it’ll not get done.”

Tiessen said he’d vote for Option #4.

Deputy Mayor Larry Verbeke was puzzled why the town has to tell the taxis what their fares would be and said he would be okay with just deregulating them.

Taylor O’Connor, from the municipality’s licensing department, told council that there are currently two fare zones — uptown and out-of-town.

The uptown rate is $7.50 and outside of town it’s $7.50 plus $1 per km travelled outside the uptown.

The Deputy Mayor gave an example of why he thinks those fares aren’t good.

“Someone comes into the marina in a boat. They want to go to a restaurant near the library,” he said. “They pay $7.50. But if they want to go to a restaurant next to Mersea Park, they have to pay $13.50, even though it’s closer.”

Councillor Anthony Abraham said he’s a big fan of deregulation, but there needs to be some sort of regulation in place.

“Do I think it’s over-regulated? Absolutely,” he said.

When the vote was taken, council voted 5-1 to have further reports brought forward before making a decision.