The battle to get more taxi licenses in Timmins has passed another hurdle…sort of.

While the Timmins Police Services Board maintains that 60 licenses is adequate enough locally, they are looking to get 10 licenses for ‘accessible taxi cabs,’ that would only serve people with accessibility issues.

This has been part of a larger discussion on whether or not there are enough cabs to service Timmins and Porcupine. It has put Timmins’ only two cab companies—Vet’s Taxi and Northern Taxi—at odds on the matter.

(Mayor Steve Black mentions he’s heard—without naming them by name—Vet’s tried to buy out a broker from Northern for around $30,000 in the last couple weeks.
That’s a story for another day, as this issue has certainly taken on a life of it’s own.)

(CLICK HERE to see last month’s coverage on the taxi debate.)

Last month was the first mention on getting taxi cabs retrofitted with equipment to serve people with accessibility issues and according to Police Chief John Gauthier, there’s still a lot of questions to be answered.

“(Timmins Police) Constable (Tom) Buczkowski (who issues taxi licenses in Timmins) and I did have a very small chat about it,” said Gauthier, “Certainly, would it be the same drop off rates, the fees, was there an increase in the fees for this type of service…is it a standalone accessible taxi or can it be used on the off hours or hours when they’re not busy as a regular taxi cab.”

Stemming from that last point, Gauthier wouldn’t recommend using these retrofitted cabs for regular fares because it wouldn’t be fair and wouldn’t serve the purpose of the accessible taxi license.

On the cab licenses themselves, the Chief suggests they could be coloured differently than regular cab licenses and adds what would happen if the plates get approved.

“Are we going to do a lottery system?,” Gauthier asked, “That’s everything that has to be researched. There’s going to be a lot of work involved in this, including looking at all the changes to the by-law, proof that they meet the criteria to be used as a taxi cab so if I call up ‘John Gauthier’ and give them my home address and I need an accessible taxi cab, the driver gets there, what’s the criteria for me to be using an accessible taxi cab? I may have a broken leg, I may have a sprained ankle, I could take a regular taxi cab (but) I don’t want to wait.”

Gauthier says it’ll take some time to research this further, giving a timeline of the “late-fall” before anything could be set in stone and passed through.

Board Member John Curley, who brought the initial motion forward on more licenses, believes “the information is out there already” and is just a matter of contacting other cities.

Curley also points out a scenario where someone with accessibility issues in Matheson could potentially call a Timmins company to retrieve a cab.

Gauthier says it surely wouldn’t be an issue, as companies are doing that already with regular taxis.

Board Chair and Timmins Mayor Steve Black—who joined the meeting via telephone from North Bay—pointed out the resolution on the table Thursday was whether the board should move ahead with the idea. And the by-law issue can be researched and sorted out after.

“There’s no point in making Tom spend another 20-30 hours researching this if this isn’t something the board wants to pursue,” he says.

Another layer to this was the Cochrane DSSAB’s decision to cancel out all “non-emergency transfers” as of the beginning of 2017. There are certain exceptions to that, such as anyone with a critical, life threatening health issue.

“There is greater pressure now for accessible taxis than there has been in the past,” says Black, while mentioning the Northeast Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN) has been looking into alternatives as well.

Black suggests any business owner, whether existing or wanting to start up, consult with the LHIN and sort out a business plan to determine if they’re too late to get involved with the LHIN’s efforts.

“If (the NE LHIN) comes in with another service from somewhere else, that may impact your model that you’re basing at the start to add accessible cabs,” the Chairman says.

In the end, the Board passed the idea through and this will go to Timmins city council for a formal approval before any research into the matter takes place.

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