Uber, City of Ottawa agree on accessibility surcharge

The City of Ottawa and ride-hailing service Uber have agreed on the amount of a surcharge that will eventually go toward supporting accessible transportation in the capital.

Seven cents from every Uber trip will now end up in a municipal reserve fund,saidAnthony Di Monte, the city's general managerof emergency and protective services, in a memo to city councilWednesday.

The "voluntary" surcharge will be applied retroactively to trips taken since Oct. 4, 2016 the date Uber was licensed to operate in the city, Di Monte said.

Based on the company's ride statistics, the surcharge payment from Uber's first year in operation will amount to roughly $450,000 for Ottawa.

Going forward, Uber will pay the surcharge monthly, Di Monte added.

Advocates criticized surcharge plan

Earlier this year, accessibility advocates criticized the City of Ottawa for deciding to implementa surchargerather than requiringthe ride-hailing company to provide accessible service.

• No wheelchair-accessible Uber fleet coming for Ottawa

The agreed-upon levy is also significantly less than the 30-cents-per-trip surcharge that the city'sconsulting firm KPMG initially recommended, based on what other cities like New York and Chicago had done.

Di Monte saidin his memo that he willwork with other "internal and external" agencies, including Para Transpo and the city's own accessibility advisory committee, to come up with a plan to use the funds.

That work willbegin in September and willbe followed with a report to city council, Di Monte said.

Read the memo here