Regional councillors say early Uber launch a surprise

Regional councillors say the sudden launch of Uber services in Waterloo Region came as a surprise after meeting with the ride sharing service the day before the announcement.

"We knew it was pretty much imminent but we are disappointed it came without anykind of announcement beforehand, particularly when Uber staff were meeting with regional staff yesterday" said Coun.Tom Galloway in an interview shortly after Uber's Thursday announcement.

"There was no mention whatsoever that they were going to be launching today."

Ian Black, Uber Canada's general manager, said some people were informed of the launch, but did not specify who.

"We did let some folks know. We're launching in four cities today in southwestern Ontario so there's a lot of folks to notify of that so not everybody would have received a call, but we tried to let as many folks know as possible," said Black.

We are reviewing our bylaw right now for taxicabs and are planning to put into place some things that would accommodate someridesharingapps.- Sean Strickland, Regional Councillor

The company'sUberX service went live at 2 p.m. Thursday inWaterloo Region, Guelph, Hamilton and London.

Uber said there werehundreds of drivers registered in Waterloo Region, and thattens of thousands of residents in the areawho have used Uber in other communities hadthe Uber app on their phones.

Still, questions remain as to whether the ridesharing service is operating legally in municipalities, with strict taxi bylaws in place in most cities.

• Uber launches service in Waterloo Region, Guelph, Hamilton, London today

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"We are reviewing our bylaw right now for taxicabs and are planning to put into place some things that would accommodate some ridesharing apps like Uber and Lyft," said Coun. Sean Strickland.

"Since they've started to operate we're going to have to speed up that process to review our bylaw."

Earlier this month Uber won a landmark case against the City of Toronto after the municipalitysought a permanent injunction on the company's operations, arguing Uber is a taxi company and must abide by the city's regulations.

The court ruled Uberdid not need to abide by the bylaw as there was no evidence Uber was operating as ataxi broker.

Both councillorssaid they believe the issues surrounding Uberare too broad to be the sole responsibilityofmunicipalities issue, adding they hope the province will pursue regulation of ride sharing services.

"I think it's moved from the local level to the provincial level," said Strickland.

"I think the provincial government and the ministry of transportation should adopt provincial regulations similar to what many states in the US have done to recognize Uber and Lyft and these disruptive technologies," said Strickland.