the broken typewriter

Current service not up to par say council, public

Taxi service in Fort St. John leaves something to be desired, according to communications received by City Council. Members of the public, and Northern Health have reached out to council seeking a solution to the problem.

Oftentimes, passengers arriving at Fort St. John Airport, especially on the last plane of the night, find that there is no taxi service available to take them into the city. At other times, again, particularly at night, when the bus service has ended for the day, residents find themselves unable to get a taxi home in a timely fashion.

“To be blunt,” said Councillor Byron Stewart, “our taxi service, sucks. I know it’s a local company, I wish they were doing better, but they’re not.”

Providing adequate taxi and transportation services is essential to the economic development goals of the city. With that crucial need in mind, at the June 26 council meeting, city staff were directed to investigate the matter, by communicating with the Passenger Transportation Board. Their findings, on the state of taxi licensing and ride-sharing in Fort St. John were brought to Monday’s council meeting.

Twice so far this year, new potential businesses have approached the city, seeking support for applications to start taxi businesses. City staff helped these prospective business owners with information about starting businesses in the city, and drafted letters of support to the Passenger Transportation Board. These letters outlined the challenges that are being experienced in the community, as the capacity of the existing taxi industry is less than optimal. Inquiries made to the BC Passenger Transportation Board in  June, showed that one of the applications has been received by the Commercial Passenger Vehicles area. Once the CPV has reviewed and processed the application it will be sent back to the Board for a final decision. An application from the other potential taxi business has not been received.

In addition to taxi services, Uber has been authorised to operate in BC. However, Councillor Trevor Bolin noted that someone applied to start up an Uber service three months ago, but was denied. This doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to have Uber in Fort St. John.

“I don’t think it’s widely known, the province, let alone in our community, that Uber licenses are available,” Stewart explained. “So if there are entrepreneurs with riding sharing, driving things currently, I would encourage them to contact Uber and the Passenger Transportation Board, and get some licenses.”

“It is detrimental to our community, the state that our taxi service is in,” he said.

Councillor Gord Klassen wondered if there’s an avenue the city can take to let the Passenger Transportation Board know that the taxi service in Fort St. John is not only not up to par, but has no accessible cabs.

Bolin replied that the last time the city did, Councillor Stewart had made a recommendation about having an accessible cab. “The Passenger Transportation Board came back and made them have one, or they would not approve their increase in fees,” Bolin said. “We then, also approved their increase in fees. Three months later they shelved the accessible cab, and it’s never hit the road.”

Council determined that adding additional taxi or ride-sharing services to the community can only improve the situation. To help encourage Uber to allow their service in our community, Klassen moved that city staff write a letter to Uber, expressing interest in having them open up a business in the city.

Stewart also recommended that staff set up a meeting with the Passenger Transportation Board when council goes to UBCM in September, to discuss ride-sharing and the current situation with taxi service in Fort St. John.