Mayor Olivia Chow said her second attempt to cap rideshare licences is on stronger legal footing thanks to extensive consultations with the industry — though Uber doesn’t agree.
Late last year, Chow backed down from her surprise proposal to cap the number of rideshare drivers after Uber threatened legal action and city lawyers warned they were on shaky ground.
“Last time after we put the cap in, there was a lawsuit. I didn't want the City of Toronto to waste enormous amounts of money to battle it out in court,” Chow said on Tuesday.
Chow said she learned from last year’s snafu.
“At that time, the conversation was that there wasn’t enough consultation. There have been a lot of consultations throughout this year,” she said.
Uber, however, doesn’t see it that way.
“We only had one meeting with the city this year in terms of consultations,” said Keerthana Rang, head of corporate communications for Uber Canada, in a statement to TorontoToday.
The company also provided a 41-page written submission to the city’s executive committee.
Asked about another potential lawsuit, Rang said it’s too early to tell.
“Our focus is on collaborating with the City of Toronto and we will see what happens at executive committee today before considering any legal options,” she said.
Earlier in the day, Chow said the ball is in Uber’s court.
“We don’t know what Uber will do … There’s been lots of lawsuits. We’ll see,” she said.
Last week, city manager Paul Johnson recommended the city freeze the number of rideshare licences at 80,429 — the number of rideshare drivers currently on the roads.
Under the proposed system, new licences could still be issued as drivers gave them up, keeping the city's quota at 80,429. The city’s goal is to reduce traffic congestion and emissions, as well as edge commuters toward transit.
Last year’s lawsuit
Uber’s 2023 lawsuit revolved around what the company called a “bad faith” effort that deprived the public and the industry of “an open and transparent process,” according to the court filing.
On Oct. 11, 2023, council surprisingly passed a motion to cap the number of rideshare drivers on the road during a debate on reducing emissions in the industry.
The motion came “with no notice to the public, Uber or other impacted stakeholders,” the company said in the court filing.
“Under its own procedures, the city was required to provide advance public notice of the licence cap. The city chose to ignore its own procedures and adopted the licence cap by ambush.”
The city held several virtual and in-person meetings with various groups of rideshare industry stakeholders — including drivers and passengers — over the summer and conducted a months-long online survey.
The report on the consultations said nearly 3,000 people participated in the online survey. Over half of respondents were passengers and a third were drivers. Just four per cent of respondents worked on the corporate side of the ridesharing companies. There is no breakdown by company.
More to come…
