Taxi owners growing impatient
Bylaw recommendations made last year have yet to make it to city council
Myles Dolphin
Northern News Services
Published Monday, April 28 2014
IQALUIT
Owners of Iqaluit's largest cab companies are still waiting for their recommendations to be heard before city council after months of inactivity at the committee level.
Councillor Kenny Bell, who chaired the taxi review and taxi complaint committees, resigned from both during the latest council meeting April 22, citing a lack of support from the city.
"I've scheduled meetings and we haven't had them," he said.
"They haven't happened. I cannot continue in that role."
Recommendations to amend the current taxi bylaw, made in September and October, have yet to be presented to council and owners are growing impatient.
Craig Dunphy, owner of Pai-Pa Taxi Ltd., said he sympathizes with Bell and his decision to step down from those committees.
"I can understand where Kenny is coming from," he said, adding that meetings are few and far between.
"There was supposed to be a public meeting a few months ago and I never heard about it. We're not getting any information. The last meeting I can remember attending was when we implemented bylaw 590."
That taxi bylaw is dated Sept. 28, 2004 on the city's website.
Dunphy said there are a number of changes that need to be made in order to modernize the bylaw, such as increasing the current tariff to $7 from $6 and doing a better job of enforcing the rules.
"Municipal enforcement should enforce the current legislation, which they have not been doing," he said.
"There's a company in Iqaluit known as the $5 taxi. Why are they still allowed to operate? When I hire a driver, before they get their permit, they're made aware of the rules and regulations regarding taxis, they're aware of the fines and penalties. The rules have to be enforced."
Coun. Bell said the recommendations should have already been brought to council's attention.
He didn't know the reason behind the delay, he added, but said city staff would normally add the recommendations to the next council meeting's agenda under "new business" and that hasn't happened.
Danny Savard, who runs Caribou Tuktu Cabs, said he'd like to see stiffer penalties for breaking the rules.
Smaller companies are using scanners in their vehicles to steal his calls, he said, and it's costing him a lot of money.
"I also put a recommendation forward to have cameras in taxis," said Savard.
"It's a safety measure so that if anything happens in a taxi, it'll be caught and recorded. If I get complaints about my drivers I'll discipline them but I can't fire them over just anything."
Under the current bylaw, the penalty for having a radio scanner in a taxi is $500.
Savard is also in favour of a tariff increase as opposed to a zone-based rate.
He said there should be a single rate for the city's core but exceptions would apply.
"If you're picking someone up in Apex and going to the end of Sylvia Grinnell Park, well that's what we were complaining about. The fee should be higher," he said.
"Our gas is going up, our rent is going up. We're still waiting for these recommendations to be approved."
Dunphy said he agrees with the idea of having cameras in cabs, and is also against a zone-based rate, saying it would wreak havoc with the cab vouchers currently in use.
The new chairperson for both taxi committees is Coun. Noah Papatsie.
