Katie May
Northern News Services
Published Friday, August 01, 2008

SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - City council is in the process of raising taxi fees, but cab drivers won't get the dramatic hike they're looking for - at least not right away.

Council is going forward with a recommendation from city administration to increase flag rates to $4.50 from $4, plus 20 cents for each additional 100 metres, up from 16 cents per 100 metres.

The fee increase is part of the Fees and Charges bylaw, which is set for third and final reading next month. Council has unanimously agreed to review taxi rates again in October when it considers lifting Yellowknife's cab licence freeze. After that, council will review cab fees every year as fuel prices continue to rise.

Roughly 20 cab drivers from both local companies, City Cabs (1993) and Diamond Cabs, showed up at a city committee meeting Monday morning in support of a fee hike. Diamond Cab driver Vaughn del Valle proposed a $7 flag rate and a 100 metre distance rate of 50 cents, plus an additional waiting charge for each minute drivers have to wait for customers. By the end of the day Monday, del Valle said 39 drivers had signed a petition supporting the $7 rate, which he said he calculated by adding Fort Smith's $4.30 rate with increasing inflation rates and adjusting for higher gas prices.

"The upshot of it is that using (department of) public safety's recommendations, a driver would have to work 10 to 12 hours simply to recover costs on the trip... before they would make any money for their families," del Valle told council. "I'm not convinced that public safety necessarily has a handle on the realities that we deal with."

While Coun. David McCann said he felt del Valle's proposed 46 per cent increase was "reasonable" and Coun. Bob Brooks said administration's recommended 21 per cent increase was too low, other councillors, including Lydia Bardak, were torn between concern for drivers and concern for the public.

"I kind of see this as a crisis. I think that a huge increase in taxi rates could seriously cause fewer riders," Bardak said. "But at the same time, if it isn't a significant increase I think we'll see some cabs going off the road because people can't make a living."

Coun. Mark Heyck said del Valle's proposed $7 rate was too high for council to implement all at once.

"I have difficulty with a 46 per cent increase in one shot," he said. "A 21 per cent increase is a good place to start and then we can review it a year from now."

Councillors Paul Falvo, Shelagh Montgomery and David Wind voted against the fees and charges bylaw, which included the proposed taxi rate increases.

Wind said he felt council needed more information about the situation taxi drivers face before it should impose higher rates.

"It's painted in such a dire situation that I wonder why anyone would aspire to be a taxi driver," he said.

After the cab drivers heard council would consider only the $4.50 increased rate at that night's regular public meeting, they discussed possibilities of a taxi strike.

City Cabs driver Mohamed Basha told del Valle the petition wouldn't work.

"We need to strike for two or three hours, that's all," he said.

But del Valle told drivers not to jump the gun.

"I didn't use that word," he said, referring to the mention of a strike. "I don't want it to come off as a threat."