Halifax looks to improve appeals process for taxi licences

Halifax is looking to improve how appeals of taxi licences are handled in the municipality.

Taxi drivers can have their licences suspended when charged or convicted of a crime. If they want to get it back, they ask a three-person municipal appeal committee to reinstate their licence.

Bill Moore, executive director of community safety for Halifax, said staff are working with privacy experts from the province to create a more standardized way for the process to unfold. 

He said it's important to balance the legal rights of drivers going through the court process, with ensuring the committee has enough information to make a decision.

Moore said there have been various ways people handling the appeals have gotten information in the past.

The committee structure of three civilians with legal expertise has only been in place since 2021. Regional elected councillors made decisions on appeals before that.

"What we're trying to do is make sure that we are grounded in law and grounded in the privacy respects of of all parties involved, and making sure that both the appeals committee and police are able to do what they need to do, but not jeopardize anything," Moore said after a Halifax police board meeting Wednesday.

Halifax has seen multiple cases of taxi drivers accused of sexual assault and impaired driving in the past decade. In one high-profile case, driver Bassam Al-Rawi was convicted in August 2020 for a sexual assault he committed eight years earlier in Bedford, N.S. 

But the committee that handles licence appeals has heard very few recently. 

The committee has not met yet this year, and last heard an appeal in January 2023 when they granted a licence back to a driver who had been convicted of impaired driving of his personal vehicle.