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VICTORIA — Premier John Horgan brushed aside criticism Tuesday that his government is pandering to its political friends in the taxi industry with the announcement of a one-sided review of ride-hailing that excludes companies like Uber and Lyft.

Horgan faced questions in the legislature about why his government broke an election promise to introduce ride-hailing this year, and why he chose to task independent consultant Dan Hara with talking to the traditional taxi associations but not the actual ride-hailing companies, which refer to their service as “ride-sharing.”

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“The people that are sitting on that side of the house knew for five years that ride-sharing was coming to British Columbia, and for five years they kept booting the ball down the field until just before the election,” Horgan said in response to questions from Opposition Liberal leader Rich Coleman.

“Just before the election, they said: ‘Look, we’ve got a solution.’ And the solution led to more of us on this side of the house than them on that side of the house. So I make no apologies to the now leader of the Opposition for wanting to get ride-sharing … right, rather than wanting to get it done for political reasons, which is why you had a bogus consultation in March that led to a blank slate for us to fill in.”