Saugeen Shores council plans to get rid of taxi licencing fees, and wants to see if the rest of Bruce County is on board.
The idea behind the change would be to reduce regulatory barriers for those who want to provide vehicle-for-hire services, and open the door for ride sharing services.
The next step is to see if other municipalities in Bruce County are on board with the idea for the next budget year.
Mayor Luke Charbonneau says in a statement, “Town Council is continuing on its path to lower costs for local businesses so that they can provide enhanced services for our community,” adding, “Through open discussions with the County and neighbouring municipalities we can hopefully gauge interest in moving forward on reducing regulatory barriers for the vehicle-for-hire industry for 2025.”
While the Town suspends the collection of fees for the taxi licensing regime, there would still be a licencing and vetting process. Clerk Dawn Mittleholtz told councillors during a June 24th discussion, “There would be the continuation of collecting the safety certificate for the vehicles as well as a driver’s abstract, a vulnerable sector police check and an insurance certificate.
During that evening’s discussion, Mayor Luke Charbonneau shared the opinion that the industry should be left to largely regulate itself, noting he’s received feedback from larger ridesharing companies, explaining “The hodge-podge of regulatory regimes in rural areas– every small town with its own licencing regime across all of Southwestern Ontario is a problem for ridesharing companies like Uber in that they can’t justify dealing with all those potential different regulations they need more consistency.”
A staff report says, in the 2024 Fees and Charges By-law, new taxi or limousine service providers must pay a one-time fee of about $221. There is also an annual per vehicle fee of $57, and an annual per driver permit fee of $56.