By James Peters

Milobar: Government ignored most of committee’s ride-hailing recommendations

Nov 20, 2018 | 12:02 PM

KAMLOOPS — A Kamloops MLA who was on the legislative committee studying ride-hailing says the regulations introduced by the NDP government this week have ignored most of the committee’s recommendations.

Peter Milobar of Kamloops-North Thompson sat on the all-party committee that heard from the ride-sharing industry, as well as a variety of interested parties.

Milobar says the committee issued a report based on that research, but much of that report’s recommendations do not appear to have been included in the regulatory regime unveiled this week.

He concludes the government is not actually trying to move on something for which the public is clamoring.

“What I think we see with this bill is that, in fact, it is in name only that the government is trying to implement ride-hailing. There’s no way, under these current regulatory systems they’re putting in place, that we will see any substantive ride-hailing options for people. In fact, it will probaby create confusion even within the existing taxi industry,” said Milobar.

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Uber Canada’s Michael van Hemmen has said it’s unlikely British Columbians will see any ride-sharing service on the road next year.

“I’m not really sure why it’s taking so long,” said Milobar.

 “Certainly, if you look at the track record of the premier’s chief of staff (Geoff Meggs) during his time on Vancouver city council and all the roadblocks they were putting up as a city toward something like this, it’s not hard to see that this is probably a resistance that starts right in the premier’s office and permeates through government.”

Among the regulations introduced by Transportation Minister Claire Trevena, ride-hailing drivers would need a Class 4 driver’s license, the same as those required for operating large commercial vehicles.

Milobar says that doesn’t make sense.

“There were other ways I think the government could have gone. (For instance) a Class 5 regular driver’s license with a bit of an endorsement like they do if you’re going to tow a larger travel trailer for holidays,” said Milobar. “There are ways to still meet that public safety mandate without having to be overly onerous to people who would essentially be part-time drivers.”

“I wouldn’t say we may fall behind; I would say we are behind. Certainly there was some learning to be done around the world as this service got rolled out, but that was about two or three years ago we had learned those lessons.”