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B.C.’s former transportation minister is suggesting that local taxi-based ride-hailing app Kater may have been afforded a “back-door opportunity” to enter the market before companies like Uber and Lyft.

Liberal MLA Todd Stone said there are a lot of unanswered questions about how the company, which has partnered with the Vancouver Taxi Association, has managed to get itself in a position to launch before ride-hailing is allowed this fall.

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“We certainly welcome the innovation and ingenuity that apps like that developed by Kater represent, but no one company should be given a special back door into government on this file or any other files,” Stone said, adding that such a move would be “wrong on so many levels.”

Current Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Claire Trevena said that she doesn’t believe Kater has been given an unfair advantage.

“I know that every organization that is providing a ride, whether it’s a taxi or any system that is offering a ride for which people have to pay, have to follow the rules that we have in place,” Trevena said.