Saskatoon councillor says change likely coming to taxi industry

A Saskatoon councillorsaid that the online taxi service Uber will likely trigger a review of local taxi regulations.

Darren Hill is on the city's transportation committee.

It's wrestling with the pending arrival of the online service in the city.

Uber sidesteps the majority of the regulations governing the taxi industry with its app that connects customers directly with drivers.

"If we do permit that, we need to ensure then that we're not creating an unlevel playing field for the taxi industry, which we very heavily regulate," Hill said.

"So maybe we need to review some of those regulations and some of those requirements."

The committee met Tuesday.

It heard from a variety of taxi industry representatives. It also heard analysis of what happened when Uber arrived in other cities.

Hill recognized the impact.

"I think that there's a number of issues pushing this from the taxi industry. One of course is the drivers' concerns about viability, sustainable incomes, their livelihood. That's a valid concern."

The committee decided, for the time being, against asking the province to regulate Uber-like companies.