The winners and losers in Quebec’s taxi industry reforms will become apparent after Bill 17 becomes law, but the province’s taxi drivers aren’t optimistic about their future standing.<\/p>\n
“It’s not modernization, it’s an act of war,” said Abdallah Homsy, a spokesperson\u00a0the group representing Quebec City\u00a0taxi drivers. “Everything you’ve invested, too bad. It’s over. You lost.”<\/p>\n
Taxi drivers in the province, with permits that cost\u00a0as much as $200,000 a few years ago due to become worthless, see the new bill as a capitulation to the ride-booking industry and massive international firms like\u00a0Uber<\/span>\u00a0and\u00a0Lyft<\/span>.<\/p>\n If passed, Bill 17, which was tabled Wednesday by Quebec Transport Minister\u00a0Fran\u00e7ois Bonnardel,\u00a0will deregulate much of the industry.<\/p>\n Taxi permits would be abolished, territorial restrictions removed and a single set of requirements would be imposed on all operators on areas such as\u00a0training and background checks.<\/p>\n “The era of short-sighted pilot projects is over,” Bonnardel said, referring to temporary programs that have allowed Uber to operate in Montreal, Quebec City and Gatineau.<\/p>\n The bill will permit “more services, more competition and more transparency in pricing,” Bonnardel said.<\/p>\n Rapha\u00ebl\u00a0Gaudreault<\/span>, a co-founder of\u00a0Eva<\/span>, a ride-booking cooperative that hopes to begin service in Montreal this year, told\u00a0CBC’s<\/span>\u00a0Daybreak the company is “really happy” with the bill because it eliminates uncertainty.<\/p>\n Eva will start operating under a pilot program authorized by the CAQ government in January, but the reforms will create a permanent role for ride-booking services.<\/p>\n Gaudreault told\u00a0CBC’s<\/span>Daybreak<\/em>that some drivers won’t earn as much under the new rules, and passengers will come out on top.<\/p>\n “The riders will be winning in the long run,” he said.\u00a0“Because with all this competition between different companies we’ll see lower and lower prices for ride hailing.”<\/p>\n Some drivers might earn less, Gaudreault said, but Eva hopes to make drivers happy with\u00a0better rates and a cooperative structure.<\/p>\n “[Our drivers] will democratically decide how the company runs in the province of Quebec,” Gaudreault said.<\/p>\n Under the proposed changes, taxis will maintain some exclusivity.<\/p>\n Only vehicles identified as taxis, with rooftop lanterns and taxi meters,\u00a0would be able to wait at designated ranks. Only taxis would\u00a0be allowed to\u00a0pick up people who hail them from the street or contact them through a dispatcher.<\/p>\n Maximum rates for taxis would remain fixed by\u00a0the Quebec Transportation Commission.<\/p>\n The government plans to stop limiting the territories in which\u00a0permit holders can pick up or drop off customers, as well as restrictions on the number of vehicles that can serve specific areas.<\/p>\n George\u00a0Boussios<\/span>, president of\u00a0Champlain<\/span>\u00a0Taxi and a spokesperson for Montreal taxi operators, said they worked with\u00a0Bonnardel<\/span>\u00a0and the Transport Ministry in good faith and have been let down.<\/p>\n “If this is [Bonnardel’s<\/span>]\u00a0way of modernizing the industry, by eventually destroying the industry, then his plans were never to modernize the industry,”\u00a0Boussios<\/span>\u00a0said. “It was just to let\u00a0Uber<\/span>\u00a0and ride-sharing companies come into this province and run wild.”<\/p>\n Bonnardel said the government intends to “accompany the taxi industry in its transition\u00a0to the new system,” and that the law, once passed, will only come into effect gradually.<\/p>\n The province\u00a0announced Monday that it will spend another $250 million to compensate taxi drivers whose permit value has dropped since Uber’s arrival, raising the total compensation package to $500 million.<\/p>\n