The saga of the new vehicles-for-hire bylaw at North Battleford city hall can best be likened to a long cab ride winding through the city streets: it’s getting there.
First reading of the bylaw took place Monday night, but final passage of the bylaw will have to wait until the next meeting. Council tabled second reading, as councillors still sought out further information on aspects of the bylaw, particularly on the issue of rates and fees.
Administration officials have pledged to provide some answers and further tweaks by the next meeting.
The bylaw is pledging sweeping changes to regulation and licensing of taxis in the city. It has proposed ending the current taxi monopoly and ending restrictions on licences, as well as opening up the market to “transportation network companies,” better known as ride-sharing.
It appears one of the most contentious points in the recent discussions has now been settled. A hot topic had been a proposal to remove the restrictions on numbers of tax licences granted by the city, something that drew concerns and opposition from councillor Len Taylor in previous discussions.
Those concerns have now been addressed. The bylaw now includes a provision on the number of taxicabs, with wording that the number to be licenced “will be determined through the discretion of the city council. Level and quality of service will be considered in determining the issuance of additional taxi licences in the City of North Battleford.”
That wording was good enough for Taylor to announce he would vote in favour of the new bylaw.
“This meets my concerns that there is still some discretionary use to the total number of tax licences,” said Taylor.
“I consider it to be a discussion process, and I’m glad I had a chance to read it more clearly before voting on it today … I will be supporting this tonight.”
There were still some concerns expressed from council about how this “discretion” would work. Director of Planning and Development Jennifer Niesink said the intention is to bring back a set of policies and procedures to council later on.
Another concern raised at the meeting was from councillor Kent Lindgren, who inquired about rates for transportation network vehicles as opposed to taxis. Lindgren believed the rates should be set higher for those vehicles than for taxis. According to administration, the current bylaw wording called for rates to be the same for both.
“I would suggest they shouldn’t be,” said Lindgren. It was noted the rate was set higher in some other municipalities.
Administration pledged to bring back some further information at the next council meeting on that as well, with changes likely to be incorporated at that time. Lindgren also made the motion to table second reading to the next council meeting, which was carried.
