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The ride-hailing plan unveiled by the B.C. government Monday is everything Uber, Lyft and other companies expected — and feared.

It’s an overly bureaucratic and excessively regulated system in which the government — not the ride-hailing firms — will decide how many drivers will be allowed to accept passengers, where they can work and how much they can charge. There is no other jurisdiction in Canada that does it this way and Uber reacted with an understandably pessimistic response.

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“Today raises another big question mark about ride-sharing in B.C.,” said Michael van Hemmen, Uber’s spokesman for Western Canada. Van Hemmen said the company still wants to operate in B.C. and will work with the government to make it happen. But asked directly if Uber plans to start operating in B.C. next fall as the government suggested, he wouldn’t commit.

“It’s too early to say,” he said.

Which is exactly what the B.C. taxi industry wants to hear. If this ridiculously restrictive system manages to keep Uber and Lyft out of the market, it will be “mission accomplished” for a taxi sector that has successfully fought competition from ride-hailing. That appears to be what the government wants too, judging by the suffocating set of rules and regulations outlined Monday.