Part of Business in Vancouver’s ride-hailing report series, Life in B.C.’s uber slow lane. BIV delves into the long and winding road to nowhere, taxi licence devaluation, Uber driver revenue realities, ride-sharing traffic jams and the apps already servicing Metro Vancouver’s Asian community.
“We are not rushing this process,” reads a May 2016 briefing note to Peter Fassbender, then the provincial minister overseeing ride hailing in B.C.
The note, a recommended response to questions Fassbender would face on the ride-hailing battlefield, might be the most succinct summary of B.C.’s journey to services like Lyft and Uber Technologies Inc.
From 2012-18, various governments’ practice of “not rushing” yielded meetings, consultations and studies.
Meanwhile, other cities and provinces adopted ride hailing one by one until the B.C. government revealed this month these services were finally en route.
That is, at a date to be determined.
“If B.C. can adopt legislation and have marijuana legalized for recreational use in a matter of months, it doesn’t seem like ride-sharing would be much more complicated than that,” Michael van Hemmen, Uber’s Vancouver-based public policy manager, told Business in Vancouver.
But lawmakers first plan to present legislation in the fall in the hopes the government’s Passenger Transportation Board (PTB) will be able to accept applications by September 2019.
The application process could take months, meaning it could be eight years from the time Uber began offering unsanctioned rides to Vancouverites to the time ride-hailing services are permitted in B.C.
So how did B.C. fall behind so many other jurisdictions to become home to the North America’s largest city without ride-hailing services?
“I wouldn’t say we’re far behind the times at all,” B.C. Transportation Minister Claire Trevena told reporters at a July 29 press conference in which she announced plans to boost taxi supply up to 15% provincewide.
Instead, she said, B.C. is a “unique” jurisdiction in which ride-hailing services must navigate both municipal and provincial authorities.
Uber’s first foray into the province came in the city of Vancouver, where it launched services in the spring of 2012.
But by November 2012 the PTB ordered Uber to charge a minimum of $75 per trip, the same price that would apply to limousine service.
Uber left the city, after which documents published through a freedom of information (FOI) request reveal the PTB received 700 emails from British Columbians unhappy with the decision.
In November 2014, just as Uber began advertising for drivers in B.C., former transportation minister Todd Stone threatened to use dozens of undercover agents to monitor any unauthorized Uber rides.
One month earlier Vancouver city council instituted a moratorium on new vehicle-for-hire permits in anticipation Uber would enter the market and create supply issues for the taxi industry.
As the 2015 holiday season approached, FOI documents reveal that Uber lobbied the BC Liberal government to reconsider the requirements to operate within the province.
At the same time, municipalities such as Vancouver, Langley Township, Coquitlam and Port Coquitlam were also passing motions requesting the province review the rules.
The Vancouver Taxi Association (VTA) wasn’t having it.
A January 2016 letter from VTA spokeswoman Carolyn Bauer to former premier Christy Clark said her organization “vigorously” opposed the entry of ride-hailing services that would face different rules than those that apply to taxis.
“The VTA has been stymied by your Passenger Transportation Board from obtaining the licences needed to provide a more flexible taxi service that fully meets the needs of Vancouver taxi users during surges in demand. That is what has created a demand for Uber,” Bauer wrote.
“But, the solution isn’t accommodating Uber; rather it is to give the existing licence holders more licences.”
By the month’s end, Stone said the government would be willing to work with Uber to bring the services to the province.
The ride-hailing portfolio then moved from Stone to Fassbender, then the minister of community, sport and cultural development. (Fassbender did not respond to an interview request from BIV.)
“It was a matter of an evolution,” said MLA Jordan Sturdy, who was Stone’s parliamentary secretary at the time and now serves as the BC Liberals’ transportation critic.
“And as we spent more time working on it, it became clear this was not a matter of if, it was a matter of when [ride hailing would arrive].”
But BC Green MLA Adam Olsen, the party’s transportation spokesman, said the former government was indifferent about introducing Uber and Lyft.
“We’ve been dealing with not only the BC NDP on this, but [BC Green Party Leader Andrew Weaver] prior was dealing with the Liberal government that had no interest in … at least changing the taxi monopoly.”
When the spring 2017 provincial election campaign kicked off, the BC NDP, BC Liberals and BC Greens all committed in their platforms to launch ride hailing by year’s end.
However, the election resulted in a stalemate and three key ridings in Surrey where voters of South Asian descent figured significantly, swung from the BC Liberals to the BC NDP.
Sources disagree about whether the potential harm that could befall the taxi industry could have swung the city’s South Asian vote.
While one source said it has likely played a factor in the current delays, another source told BIV those perceptions are likely overblown.
Meanwhile, a commitment to introduce ride hailing was not part of the confidence and supply agreement the Greens signed with the NDP to prop up the minority government following the election.
“It was not a feature in our discussions, from my memory,” Olsen said.
“All three parties had committed to get it done.… We had every reason to believe that was going to happen.”
Instead, the government ordered a report on the taxi industry from consultant Dan Hara, who had previously written a report on taxis for the City of Vancouver, to help inform any decisions on ride hailing.
This happened just a few weeks before Weaver was to put forward a private member’s bill in support of ride hailing.
Weaver then followed up the next month to announce his private member’s bill would be referred to an all-party committee.
One source tells BIV that Weaver forced the government to form the committee after it became clear Hara was not mandated to speak to ride-hailing services for his report.
Hara ultimately took it upon himself to reach out to these services on his own.
Meanwhile, Lyft had begun its own outreach in B.C. during the summer of 2017, introducing itself to players in the taxi industry and government.
Tim Burr, Lyft’s western policy director, said it felt as if his sector was gaining traction.
Hara consulted with him in December, and he participated in the all-party committee in February.
But after that Burr said the government seemed to fall into a holding pattern as it awaited Hara’s report
The province expected the report to be delivered in the spring.
Although it was dated June 8, Hara’s report was not released to the public until July, the same day Trevena said the government would accept three of its recommendations, including boosting taxi fleets by up to 15%. From there, she repeated an earlier promise to introduce legislation in the fall. But she said it would then fall to the Insurance Corp. of British Columbia to develop new insurance products to accommodate ride hailing.
“There are no restrictions on the apps,” wrote BC NDP MLA Bowinn Ma, who chaired the all-party committee, in a Facebook post the day after the transportation minister’s announcement.
“Uber and Lyft apps [or any app] are free to operate here in B.C. – their drivers and vehicles would simply have to adhere to the current rules that exist here. Unfortunately, they have chosen not to apply because they don’t like the laws and framework that exist in B.C.”
The ministry did not make the minister available for a BIV interview, instead offering Hara to talk about his report on taxis.
For now, van Hemmen said Uber will be prepared for drivers to hit the road “quite quickly” once it’s sanctioned to do so.
“Passing legislation this fall is great news, especially if it will be workable to allow companies like Uber to operate,” he said. “But we’re wanting to work with the government to ensure that implementation can happen more quickly.”
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