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Vancouver is the largest city in North America without the ride-hailing service Uber. B.C. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena made it clear this week that it will remain so for a least another year and possibly forever.

Although legislation is supposed to be in place this fall for the Passenger Transportation Board to accept applications from ride-hailing companies to begin offering services in September 2019, Trevena made clear at a press conference Thursday that neither Uber nor its competitor Lyft are welcome in this province. Instead, her government is “laying the foundation for a made-in-B.C. solution.”

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And, as it happens, The Vancouver Taxi Association is pitching just such a solution. In an exclusive story, Province columnist Mike Smyth revealed Thursday that former NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota has acted as a matchmaker to bring together the VTA and Surrey businessman Monty Sikka, founder of Kater Technologies. Their plan is to introduce a new service with 200 “Kater cabs”, which would charge the same rate as VTA taxis and funnel 20 per cent of the profits to the VTA.