The Liberal MLA for Kamloops North is not confident B.C. will finally see ride-sharing as promised by the NDP government this fall.
Peter Milobar sits on all party legislative ride-sharing committee and he says public frustration is beginning to boil over a lack of taxis and no ride sharing companies.
He was asked if there is any chance either Uber or Lyft could be on the streets as promised this fall.
“I would say no. At this point at the pace the government is taking we are a committee that doesn’t meet again until February 25th. We haven’t even started to formulate the report yet. We will start to take a look from the 25th on. Then the government has to kick it around and think about it. Then they have to look at what regulations to bring in. I don’t see how you meet a timeline of being ready to start approving people in the fall.”
And then Milobar says you still need to consider the problems with the legislation itself especially where it concerns the Passenger Transportation Board
“A government agency that is incredibly slow trying to get taxi licences out there are going to somehow be able to manage the flow and supply of ride hail licences. There is just so many unworkable things in Bill 55 legislation that it really does make you question if the government was serious about bringing ride hailing in.”
The NDP ran on introducing ride sharing in the fall of 2017 then as government has now twice delayed implementation pushing it to the fall of 2019.