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By Curtis Galbraith
City Hall

Council delays approval of Vehicle for Hire bylaw

Mar 8, 2021 | 9:03 PM

City Council has put off approval of its new Vehicle for Hire Bylaw.

Council voted not to have third reading at Monday’s meeting after asking administration to come up with a section calling for GPS tracking in taxi cabs.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says this was done out of concern for safety

“And what that looked like for people that were in vehicles, for municipalities to be able to work with their enforcement department in regards to tracking potential vehicles for hire,” said Clayton. “Administration will work with industry to see what possible opportunities there are in regards to putting GPS in vehicles for hire.”

A motion to add a section calling for GPS and cameras was defeated on a tie vote. Clayton adds some on council worried this would be too expensive for taxi operators.

“There wasn’t a lot of information on what that would look like and the concern was (with) not only the installation of the cameras, (but) the additional costs for backing up the data from the cameras and how long that data needed to be kept on file.”

The new Vehicle for Hire bylaw would be a separate regulation after previously being part of the Business Licensing bylaw.

Clayton says there is more involved with vehicles for hire than pricing.

“There are also other components to it in regards to safety, road expectations for these vehicles, and its truly something more than just a business license requirement.”

The new Business Licensing bylaw comes into effect May 1.

The Vehicle for Hire bylaw will be back before council in two weeks.

Council did approve two other amendments. One would require taxis to display rates, payment methods and terms on the vehicle unless a price was pre-arranged. Companies are also required to have an office somewhere in or near Grande Prairie.

by Curtis Galbraith