VANCOUVER—For those in British Columbia looking for an Uber or a Lyft, it’s been a long, long wait.

But thanks to a decision Thursday by the province’s regulator, B.C. has become the latest jurisdiction — joining hundreds of others globally — to give the two ride-hailing giants a green light.

As the industry belatedly arrives on Canada’s West Coast, though, it finds itself facing more scrutiny than it did even a few years ago. It is, in fact, bringing with it a hailstorm of legal challenges from the South, East and West that could fundamentally change the business model and the service that residents in cities around Canada have come to rely on.

“Obviously, there’s a lot of people excited about the recent approvals and Uber and Lyft coming to Vancouver,’ said Lior Samfiru, an employment lawyer working in both Vancouver and Toronto. “I would caution them not to get overly excited, because they may not be doing so for a very long time.”

Multiple legal challenges currently seeking to establish Uber and Lyft drivers as employees could turn the companies’ business models on their heads.

In California, new legislation that came into effect Jan. 1 made it clear that Uber and Lyft drivers were owed employee protections such as minimum wage and vacation pay.

A union drive for Uber Black drivers is currently testing whether drivers are considered employees who can unionize in Toronto.

And the union UFCW 1518, a union that represents food and service workers, is facing off against Uber and Lyft at B.C.’s labour relations board to make the same argument.

What may seem like a minor distinction could be the difference between Uber and Lyft’s status quo or having to implement major structural changes that could increase costs and affect the availability of drivers on the road.

While Uber and Lyft treat drivers as independent contractors, they’re saving money other employers have to spend on things such as payroll, human resources and scheduling.

“Their entire model is being challenged,” Samfiru said. “They simply couldn’t operate without significant restructuring,” if drivers were confirmed to be employees.

Samfiru argued at the Supreme Court of Canada in November that a proposed class action claiming Uber drivers are employees should be allowed to go forward. The top court has yet to release its decision on whether the case can proceed through Canadian courts, but Samfiru thinks the changes in California or other jurisdictions could trigger deep changes to the companies’ operations even sooner.

“The breaking point may not happen here in B.C. or anywhere in Canada, and it could be a domino effect,” he said. “I can’t see them operating under a different model in California compared to Canada.”

Uber's website states the company is operating in 19 locations in Canada and more than 700 cities globally. The San Francisco-based Lyft currently operates in nine locations in Ontario and about 560 cities and communities in the United States.

Thursday’s approval means Vancouverites will likely be able to hail cars through Uber and Lyft some time next week — once all the requisite paperwork and insurance is in place.

The news means people such as Ian Tostenson, who have been pushing for Vancouver ride-hailing for years, can finally stop refreshing their web browsers in anticipation of the big news.

For the past several weeks, advertisements on billboards and social media had prompted Vancouverites to download the Lyft app in preparation for the moment the company would begin operating in Vancouver, which, the ads suggested, was just around the corner.

“It’s going to have a profound impact,” Tostenson, who advocates for the hospitality industry said. “People are going to now travel with confidence, knowing they can go from A to B and back to A.”

But B.C., with its labour movement history, isn’t entirely welcoming ground for ride-hailing, as evinced by the industry’s belated arrival.

Kim Novak, president of the B.C. union arguing to the Labour Relations Board that drivers are employees, said the union is “open to conversations” with the company about what they need in order to be successful.

“We want these companies in ride hailing to be successful,” she said. “Our main focus is to make sure that workers’ rights are upheld.”

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The B.C. Federation of Labour, which represents 500,000 unionized British Columbians, had asked the provincial regulator to proactively require Uber and Lyft to call their drivers employees before issuing licences. That hasn’t happened, but federation president Laird Cronk said the organization will do everything it can to help drivers assert that they are owed employee protections such as worker’ compensation.

That could include supporting UFCW 1518, helping drivers lodge complaints with the Employment Standards Branch, and even pushing the government on legislative changes, if need be, Cronk said.

“We’ve known for a long time that ride hailing would find its way here, and we’ve always been in favour and we welcome it,” Cronk said. “It’s work for workers.”

Treatment of drivers hasn’t escaped the government’s notice.

In a Thursday news conference about the ride hailing approvals, Transportation Minister Claire Trevena said the premier has asked her to form a “task force” to analyze data on driver compensation, which will be collected by the third-party regulator.

The two companies that were approved this week still have a few administrative hurdles to clear before they can start connecting passengers and drivers over their app: mainly applying for licences in each of the municipalities that will be within their operating area.

In the city of Vancouver, which has promised swift action, they’re likely to get approval some time next week, while it may take longer for them to become available in municipalities such as Surrey, which have been resistant to the idea of awarding ride-hailing licences.

Lyft's B.C. general manager Peter Lukomskyj said in a statement the company is working with local jurisdictions to obtain business licences.

"Once those are approved, we plan to announce our initial operating area, give our inaugural ride and launch our service," he said.

Michael van Hemmen, Uber's spokesman in Western Canada, said in a statement the licence approval is a major step, but the company still needs to receive several administrative approvals before it hits the road.

"We hope to launch very soon, once we have obtained a business licence from the City of Vancouver and purchased insurance from the Insurance Corporation of B.C.," he said.

Companies are required to follow B.C.’s laws on ride hailing, which include ensuring that drivers have a Class 4 commercial licence (the same one taxi drivers have) and submit usage data to the arm’s length provincial board for review. At least 29 companies have applied for ride-hailing licences in the province. Of those, three have been approved. (The first ride hailing company to be approved was an app called Whistle! which will operate only in Whistler and Tofino.) Three have also been rejected.

with files from The Canadian Press

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