Columnist Mike Smyth writes about the plan by the Vancouver taxi industry to set up its own ride-for-hire app and keep Uber out of the local market.

The taxi industry is making a last-minute pitch to keep Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing smartphone apps out of B.C., the last major jurisdiction in North America where the services are still illegal.

The taxi monopoly’s alternative suggestion: a made-in-B.C. ride-for-hire app with profits flowing back to the taxi companies.

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The Vancouver Taxi Association has struck a tentative agreement with wealthy Surrey businessman Monty Sikka to develop a ride-for-hire app called Kater, with 20 per cent of the profits remaining with taxi firms.

The deal is outlined in a three-page “letter of intent” that I obtained exclusively. The document, which you can read below, calls for the licensing of 200 “Kater Cabs,” which would operate like Uber cars.

“The rates charged by Kater Cabs will be the same as the rates charged by the VTA taxis,” says the agreement, which you can read in full at theprovince.com. “Kater will pay 20 per cent of its profits to the VTA.”

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Carolyn Bauer, head of the taxi association, confirmed the tentative deal and said the taxi industry is asking the government to approve the Kater app, while keeping Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing apps out of the province.

“Ride-sharing needs to come in and this is a made-in-B.C. solution,” she said, confirming former NDP cabinet minister Moe Sihota introduced the taxi association to Sikka, who would bankroll Kater’s startup operations under the terms of the deal.

“Moe Sihota has been our friend for many years and we’re hoping the government lets us at least try this as a six-month pilot project to show it can work,” she said, adding the introduction of Uber, Lyft and other competitors would destroy the taxi industry.

“Why wipe out an industry?” she said. “Let us prove this can be a success.”

But a coalition supporting Uber and Lyft reacted angrily to the idea of giving the taxi monopoly a new stranglehold on ride-hailing.

“It would be very concerning if any government was seriously considering a proposal for a taxi ride-sharing monopoly,” said Ian Tostenson, president of Ride-sharing Now for B.C. “Backroom deals between the taxi industry and a politically connected company won’t do anything for British Columbians demanding new transportation options.”

The group wants the NDP government to keep its promise to allow “real ride-sharing options by the end of the year,” Tostenson said.

The government would only say it’s committed to providing more transportation choices.

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“We know people are frustrated and have been waiting too long for a solution,” said a statement released by Transportation Minister Claire Trevena’s office. “The province is committed to bringing in a solution for taxis and other passenger-directed vehicles.”

Trevena has scheduled a news conference for Thursday morning where she will outline “next steps” around ride-hailing and release a long-awaited report by transportation consultant Dan Hara.

Hara was hired to study the B.C. taxi industry and make recommendations to “modernize” the business and examine “the impact of new entrants into the passenger-directed vehicle market.”

His report has been with the government for months and could include recommendations to increase the number of taxi licences and remove rules that restrict taxis from crossing municipal boundaries to pick up passengers.

Those long-suggested reforms, however, will not subdue demands for Uber and Lyft. It remains unclear if the report will recommend lifting the ban on the smartphone apps or if the government is seriously considering the taxi industry’s suggestion to start its own exclusive app.

“Until we see the Hara report and hear from the minister, we really don’t know what’s going to happen,” said Bauer.

But ride-hailing advocates will be furious if the taxi monopoly is simply extended to ride-hailing or if the government yet again delays the introduction of ride-for-hire services.

“Everyone should be given a chance to compete in the ride-hailing sector,” said ride-hailing advocate Benn Proctor. “Granting a monopoly to the Vancouver Taxi Association for ride-hailing is not the way to do that.”

The governing NDP promised during last year’s election to introduce ride-hailing in B.C. by last Christmas. After that didn’t happen, the government said it would deliver on the promise this year.

I say it’s time to get on with it. Allow full competition. Anything less will be a continuing and abject failure of political will and leadership by the NDP, just like the vanquished Liberals before them.

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