Sarnia's mayor wants to look at ways of modernizing the city's taxi bylaw.
Mike Bradley will bring a motion to Monday's council meeting, requesting a report from staff on ways to "level the playing field" for taxis and other vehicles for hire.
Taxi licencing responsibilities transitioned from the Sarnia Police Service to the City of Sarnia in 2024. Bradley said in the past, taxi services "were the only game in town."
"Cabs are not in a good position to compete today because we regulate the fares, we regulate the vehicles, we regulate all sorts of things that we do not do for the other ride services," he said.
Bradley said the debate of licencing taxis and not ride sharing services has gone on for some time now.
"It's not fair to continue to regulate heavily the one service because we can and we have historically," Bradley said. "What I do want to see staying in place, is some way of checking who is driving the vehicles and if there's any concerns about their criminal record."
In 2023, council also questioned whether police checks should be required for Uber and Lyft drivers as well.
Based on looking at other cities, Bradley said it would be "very costly" to regulate those ride sharing services.
"We do not regulate them and that's why I'm bringing this forward, as a matter of fairness," he said. "I do not believe we have the resources to [regulate] them all, so I'm looking at this sort of being a pilot for a year or so, to see if we can deregulate, keep the criminal checks, and see if that helps the marketplace."
Currently, there are four companies licenced in the vehicles for hire directory on the city's website: United Taxi, Blu Light Taxi, Skip the Cab, and Skip the Taxi.
Sarnia's council meeting is scheduled to take place at 1 p.m. on Monday, March 9, at city hall.
