Rankin Inlet (May 11/05) - The dire shortage of taxis in Rankin Inlet isn't going to be solved anytime soon.

Hamlet council decided to continue its support of local attempts when it awarded three conditional taxi licences this past month.

Rankin only has one company, T.J.'s Taxi, in operation.

Council received four applications for the three licence slots remaining under its bylaws.

Despite the fact an out-of-town owner had two vehicles in the hamlet ready to go, council decided to give preference to local applicants through a secret vote.

The successful applicants have to show council they have new vehicles ordered by July.

Coun. Justin Merritt fully supports council's decision.

He said taxi services have been operated by local individuals since he moved to Rankin in 1980 and that's the way it should stay.

"The one applicant we turned down didn't have any real ties to the community," said Merritt.

"He was good enough to come to Rankin and state his case to council, but I told him he doesn't deserve a licence because he doesn't live here.

"I suggested if he wanted to try again, he should partner up with somebody local to, at least, establish a better local presence."

Hamlet in dire straits

Merritt acknowledged the community is in dire straits when it comes to taxi services.

He said as excellent as the lone service provider is, one vehicle is far from enough to service a community the size of Rankin.

That, in itself, however, was not enough to convince him to go outside the community in granting a new licence.

"Local people deserve the opportunity to fill this void and we, as hamlet council, have a responsibility to give them that opportunity. We just have to wait and see what happens, and hope it pans out for the three new applicants."

Merritt said of the three applications council approved, two had what he considered to be strong business plans.

"We've had that before (strong business plans) and things still didn't pan out, but we still have to give our own residents every chance at being successful before we look outside the community.

"We need local people operating our taxi services and that's the way I voted."

Against decision

Coun. Robert Janes disagreed with council's decision.

He said Rankin's taxi situation is critical and has to be addressed quickly.

"I'm looking at this strictly from a provision-of-service perspective," said Janes.

"Given the current situation - one taxi servicing a community this large - we shouldn't have turned our backs on someone with two vehicles in the community, fully insured and ready to go.

"That would have put two more vehicles on the road while we wait to see how these other applicants pan out.

"What upset me was that there was something here, ready to go, but, once again, we missed an opportunity to move forward."

Janes said the committee formed to address the issue recommended one licence be granted outside of the community.

He said it's hard to understand why council didn't follow the recommendation.

"It's not like council hasn't already tried to give local entrepreneurs every chance to start up a taxi business.

"How many times do we have to do this before we say enough is enough?"

Janes said while a taxi business in Rankin has the potential to be lucrative, the problem is finding third-party funding to support the venture.

"Is Economic Development, Kivalliq Partners in Development, or any other lending source going to give three different groups of people money to buy taxis?

"It's a real dog's breakfast and I don't know what the solution is as long as council is adamant our taxi licenses have to be granted to local people.

"At some point, it's going to come to a head and council is going to have to make a difficult decision if we want adequate services here."

Janes said when the hamlet is as busy as it was during the past few months, the lack of taxis is as embarrassing as it is inconvenient.

"Thank God enough people in town with vehicles were willing to transport these people, or we would have had one mess on our hands.

"They deserve a lot of credit, but we can't always count on good will to get us through."