VANCOUVER—B.C.’s minister of transportation said Thursday she doesn’t think renewed efforts by the taxi industry to quash the province’s ride-hailing rules will “infringe on the movement” to bring the service to the province.

The spectre of harm ride hailing has waged on taxi companies in other parts of Canada is creating headaches for the B.C. NDP as it attempts to balance its promise to bring in the services of Uber and Lyft with the interests of cab drivers and owners.

The province’s Passenger Transportation Branch began accepting applications this week from ride-hailing companies to operate in the province. Meanwhile, a group of taxi companies operating in the Lower Mainland petitioned the Supreme Court of B.C. in an attempt to overthrow the ride-hailing rules set by the Passenger Transportation Board.

Nine taxi companies — Black Top Cabs, Bonny’s Taxi, Burnaby Select Metrotown Taxi, MacLure’s Cabs, North Shore Taxi, Queen City Taxi, Richmond Cabs, Vancouver Taxi and Yellow Cab — petitioned the court on Wednesday to overturn rules allowing ride-hailing companies to operate without caps on their geographic area.

“In order to avoid … serious harm, it is of crucial importance for the taxi companies and owners in British Columbia that they are able to compete on equal terms with TNS (ride-hailing) companies,” a portion of the petition states. “That is what was promised by the Government of British Columbia.”

The lawyer for the taxi companies, Peter Gall, did not immediately respond to Star Vancouver’s request for comment.

“The taxi industry has been talking about their concerns very publicly. I don’t think it comes as a surprise to many people that they’re challenging this,” Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said during an unrelated press conference Thursday. “This is obviously something that is going to have to work its way through the system.”

Trevena said a letter she sent to the Passenger Transportation Board earlier this week, suggesting it conduct a review of its ride-hailing rules with an eye to the impact on taxis, was simply a way of passing on concerns she heard from constituents, stakeholders and mayors.

Eight companies have applied with the province’s Passenger Transportation Branch for licences to operate as ride-hailing companies, she said.

There’s no doubt that ride-hailing companies have the ability to cause serious damage to the taxi industry. In Toronto, for example, taxi licences are now worth 10 per cent of their value before ride hailing, said taxi expert Dan Hara, who completed a study on modernizing B.C.’s taxi industry for the province in 2018.

The nine companies believe part of the reason ride hailing undermines the value of their businesses in other jurisdictions is that caps placed on the number of taxis that can operate within geographic boundaries do not apply to private cars operating as Uber and Lyft vehicles. That gives the ride-hailing companies the opportunity to put more cars on the road.

Hara said his submission on ride hailing didn’t make a specific recommendation on whether ride-hailing vehicles should have caps on geography. But it did say the supply of ride-hailing cars should be “liberal” in order for the system to work well and meet demand from users.

He added that setting a limit on vehicles can also raise new challenges.

“If you have a limited number of vehicles you have to decide who to give them to,” Hara said in an interview Thursday, referring to his previous submission. “There may be better ways to regulate supply, such as hours on the road.”

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Ian Tostenson, president and CEO of the British Columbia Restaurant and Food Services Association and an advocate for ride hailing in B.C., said he doesn’t expect the court challenge to hinder the introduction of ride hailing. It didn’t surprise him, either, that the challenge was made.

“The model of ride sharing, you just can’t have caps on it naturally. It expands and contracts like an accordion,” he said.

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