The newest Lower Mainland municipality to make way for a municipal business licence for ridesharing vehicles is the City of Burnaby, which is giving jitters to the companies. Burnaby is going to charge $510 per vehicle from the ridesharing companies to ensure their smooth operation in the community. Speaking about the move, Coun. Sav Dhaliwal said that as Burnaby taxi companies are required to pay that charge per vehicle, hence, ridesharing companies are expected to do the same too.
“We already have a taxi company in the city of Burnaby which we charge for their licence. We have been doing this for decades. This is a company that is not billionaires like the other companies we are talking about these days”, Dhaliwal said. Further justifying the move, he said, “If this is the right price to charge for local entrepreneurs who are barely making a living, I can’t see any reason for not charging similar amounts for other taxi. Bonny’s, Uber, Lyft: they are all taxis.” The billionaire companies referred to by Dhaliwal are none other than Uber and Lyft.
In case the operating licences get approved by the province’s Passenger Transportation Board, then, Uber and Lyft will also be required to pay business licence fees in many Metro Vancouver jurisdictions. Legislating laws for the ridesharing vehicles, the Passsenger Transportation Board chalked guidelines that the vehicles would operate in one giant regional boundary. As per the present scenario, the ridesharing vehicles have freedom to choose their own municipality.
As the province has promised to have ridesharing vehicles hit the roads before Christmas, the Passenger Transportation Board is in the process of assessing the ridesharing applications. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena had voiced his concern about prohibitive local business licence fees without naming Burnaby. The highest proposed business fee at $510 per vehicle is in Burnaby. Whereas, Richmond and Vancouver would be charging $132 and $100 per driver respectively, Delta would keep it at $25 per driver.
In the meantime, the North Shore municipalities are still figuring out whether to charge a local business licence till a regional one can be put into place. Surrey is an exception, for it has decided to deviate from the province’s wishes and not issue business permits for ridesharing vehicles. A regional licensing plan is to be discussed next week by the Metro Vancouver Mayors’ Council. The execution of the plan would result in each municipality doing away with charging drivers. New Westminster Mayor and Mayors’ Council Chair Jonathan Cote illuminated on the move saying, “Personally I think it makes a lot of sense for all the cities in Metro Vancouver to work together towards a coordinated approach. I am hopeful the discussion at the Mayors’ Council leads us in that direction.”
