Scrapping long-standing taxi bylaw will benefit riders and companies, says Summerside mayor

Summerside's council voted earlier this week to repeal the city's decades-old taxi bylaw, deeming it "redundant." 

During its Dec. 16 regular meeting, councillors voted 7-1 to scrap the bylaw, which set out things like minimum insurance rates, offences and penalties, licensing fees and fare structures. 

Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher said council ultimately found there are already mechanisms in place on a provincial and policing level that made those regulations moot. 

"The safety and security issue is covered from our policing side," Kutcher said. "To make sure you only get into a taxi that's properly insured and that it passes its safety inspections… those are already requirements both from provincial legislation and then also from insurers. 

"In a lot of ways, what we did already have on the books with the taxi bylaw was redundant."

Enforcement of the bylaw fell to Summerside Police Services, but the force told council they weren't getting many complaints about taxi issues. 

Meanwhile, staff found most municipalities of a similar size don't regulate the taxi industry. While licensing fees are common in larger centres, said Kutcher, the cost of administering them in Summerside would be a burden. 

"It is something that's common in larger municipalities as a revenue generator," he said. "It really wouldn't make any financial sense [for us] to do that. We'd probably spend more dollars administering that than not." 

'Competition can create a better product'

Another argument for nixing the bylaw was opening the door for ride-hailing services that let passengers book and pay for their rides through an online app. 

The P.E.I.-created service Kari has been operating in Summerside since last December — largely outside of the scope of the taxi bylaw, said Kutcher.

The mayor said eliminating the regulations should lower the barrier of entry for new companies — both traditional taxi services and ride-hailing operations. 

"What I do think will ultimately happen here is that our taxi operators will be able to… save some paperwork, continue to provide a good service… for those who need it, and it will continue to promote competition," Kutcher said. 

"That's always healthy in any industry where competition can create a better product, better pricing, new entrants and new ways of doing things." 

The lone councillor to vote against repealing the bylaw, Ken Trenholm, raised concerns during the council meeting that deregulation also meant doing away with mandatory security screening for drivers. 

Other councillors and city staff argued that both taxi and ride-hailing companies could continue to do those on their own, adding that such checks have the potential to give passengers a false sense of security. 

"Really, the only mechanism that provides any layer of security is the annual security reference checks that are done of the drivers of those taxis in our city," J.P. Desrosiers, Summerside's deputy CAO, told CBC News before council's vote. 

"Those… may be seen as strong pieces of security for those riders. However, at the same time, a security reference check is only as good as the day that they were done." 

If someone has a complaint with the taxi service they've been using, the way to solve that is to use a different taxi service.— Summerside Mayor Dan Kutcher

Kutcher said there are no plans to introduce a revised bylaw that would encompass both taxis and ride-hailing, unless things go haywire with fares and price-gouging.  

The mayor predicts that won't happen, though. He thinks passenger services and their customers will flourish without the regulations. 

"If someone has a complaint with the taxi service they've been using, the way to solve that is to use a different taxi service," Kutcher said. 

"Removing some of the barriers to entry the taxi bylaw has put in place creates the opportunity for more competition. Over time… that creates a better environment for the… user."