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Whether to allow ride-hailing companies to operate in B.C., in particular Metro Vancouver, has left Premier John Horgan and the NDP talking out of both sides of their mouths.

In 2014, as leader of the opposition, Horgan proposed legislation to increase fines against individuals operating a ride-hail without a permit to $20,000 from $5,000, clearly standing against the operation of ride-hail vehicles in B.C. But now it feels like it’s only a matter of time before we will be hailing Ubers and Lyfts because the lack of ride-hailing in Vancouver is hurting its Trip Advisor score.

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Why is it so hard for the NDP, who should be on the side of workers’ rights and environmental issues, to frame the ride-hail argument in a way that makes it clear to B.C. residents that ride-hailing is not the answer we’re looking for when it comes to moving people around?

Too often, the argument for ride-hailing comes from the very aggressive lobbying done by the Rideshare NOW B.C. coalition, whose interests lie with the tourism industry. There is no rebuttal presented by our government that has any kind of weight to it. If tourism were sagging, then perhaps those two-star reviews might actually be a problem. Except that tourism grew by three per cent last year from 2016, the fourth consecutive year of growth.