Cab owners were given some slack by city council Feb. 28.
That’s when councillors voted to allow cabs to be as old as 15 years before being taken off the road, up from nine.
The change came after Walid Mohamed pleaded his case in a letter to council. He said the pandemic had put more pressure on cabbies and that it was too onerous to expect them to sell a vehicle after nine years and replace it. He said the price of quality used vehicles had shot up in the last two years.
“Overall, this is a very bad time to try replace a vehicle in a struggling marketplace,” he wrote.
According to Sheila Bassi-Kellett, city manager, this change is an interim step as a more in depth review of the livery bylaw, which regulates taxi companies, will occur.
“We need to take a look at it from a number of angles,” she said. “We were looking at the meters themselves, and we need to do some work to make sure that we’re updating comprehensively.”
During the Feb. 28 meeting, the decision to support an increase maximum cab usage from nine to 15 years was voiced by a number of councillors, including Cynthia Mufandaedza, Niels Konge, and Robin Williams, with Mufandaedza having brought the motion forward.
“We do know that 10 years is not enough for people to be able to replenish their vehicles,” said Mufandaedza. “So hoping that we could get an extension and just give us enough time. We have seen this, town of Inuvik, extend from 10 years to 15 citing the difficulties or the hardships of vehicles getting into Inuvik and I’m just hoping that we would adapt the same way.”
Likewise, while Konge also supported the increase the age limit, he took it a step further in saying that he also wouldn’t be opposed to there not being any age limit.
“I think that with the robust program that we have in place, where vehicles after the age of six basically need a mechanical inspection every six months to be a taxi, I think that that keeps the vehicle safe,” he said. “That’s what it should all be about.”
“I’ve seen some vehicles that are two and three years old are not safe to be on the road,” he continued. “So it’s really about how you maintain them. So yeah, I support the 15 years and, hopefully, when the livery bylaw gets a revamp, we can look at not having any age restrictions on it, and just go straight up with the safety aspect.”
In terms of those who didn’t agree with the extension, Coun. Shauna Morgan voiced that she prefer to wait until the research results came back from administration on the livery license bylaw.
“I prefer to wait until we get the research results back from the administration on the overall of livery license bylaw before we make this dramatic extension,” said Morgan. “We’re going from nine years, and so the proposal would be to 15. So that’s pretty significant. I would just want to ensure before we did, that administration did their due diligence and research.”
Stacie Smith agreed with Morgan, citing her reasons as not wanting to “jump the gun” before more research was available.
“Noting that if and when this research comes forward, we can definitely change at that point,” she said. “But I would prefer just to keep it at the 10 year mark for now.”
Mayor Rebecca Alty also supported the extension.
The motion carried after a vote of five to two with Couns. Morgan and Smith opposed.