Ottawa Council Creates Problem with Allowing Ride Share

What Mayor Watson and company have done by ignoring the obvious is create a safey problem in the transportation of people within Ottawa. In one vote they have made all boot leg cabs legal. 

Competition was needed in Ottawa, but choosing to ignore the fact that Ride Sharing and a taxi service are the same thing shows the ignorance of council. Uber is banned and facing banning all over the world including cities in North America and they refuse to operate in cities that went with the evidence that a taxi by any other name is still a taxi. So Uber packed up and left town.

Did the city even look at whether or not Uber is a tax paying Canadian company or an offshore tax dodge? Of course not, that would have been doing the absolute minimum to ensure they make the right decision.

The flip side is the taxi industry in Ottawa had a monopoly for a long time. Together with the lack of vision from the city to keep the regulations in that market updated, led to only the rich being able to get into the taxi game. It is for that reason I don't believe taxi plate owners are owed a dime in compensation for their now worthless plates. They enjoyed a locked in business model that made any real competition impossible. That was your payment. 

The taxi industry has known about Uber for a long time now. Yet there have been no court challenges (that I'm aware of ) in Ottawa. There has been nothing more than a media campaign with no real follow up. So the taxi industry has no real room to complain with Ottawa's decision to allow Uber into the market.

Finally, I don't see why the taxi industry would not just give it up altogether and become a company under a Ride Share banner.

The problem is greed, no more monopoly and more public input into the service has messed with the good thing they had.

Drivers who were not plate owners should take comfort in the fact that they can now afford to be a business owner. The city has made it feasable for anyone wishing to get into the market the ability to do so at a reasonable price.

I guess city hall's decision is a mixed bag of everything is good and everything is bad too, depending on which side of the arguement your standing on.