Thunder Bay taxi bylaw rewrite now years in the making

A new taxi bylaw could be ready for public review in Thunder Bay before the end of the year.

A committee of city council has worked on the bylaw for the past 18 months — and one of the potential changes could include an unlimited number of cab licences in the city.

Councillor Brian McKinnon, who is part of the review committee, said it's taken a while to ensure the latest bylaw will be up to date.

"Now, obviously, with some of the new things that are happening, everything from Uber taxi, we have to ensure we are addressing those issues as they arise," he said.

"We hope they're going to be covered in the bylaw."

Once the draft is ready, stakeholders, such as cab companies and the public will have a chance to comment.

"We've had lots of concerns over the years ... so we have really done our homework. That's why it's taken so long," McKinnon said.

"We have gone to a number of other jurisdictions (Burlington, Kingston, Ottawa) ... [that] have sort of done all this already. Their council looks after it, so we've used them as models."

Council took on the bylaw review from the police services board, about two years ago. The board had been studying the bylaw for about two years prior to that.

Roach's Yellow and Diamond Lacey are Thunder Bay's two cab companies.