The City of Burnaby has invited Uber - a smartphone-based ridesharing application company - to tell city council’s executive committee what it's all about.
Chris Schafer, public policy manager for the company, as well as representatives from the taxi industry, will speak at a committee meeting tomorrow.
"This is an information gathering exercise on our part," Coun. Sav Dhaliwal, who heads the committee, told the NOW.
Though the city has not received an application from Uber to provide its services in Burnaby, there has been a lot of discussion about it in the media, so council wants to be fully informed, Dhaliwal said.
"We're taking steps to find out what their business plans are," he said. "We don't really know."
However, Dhaliwal pointed out it would be up to the B.C. Passenger Transportation Board to make any licensing decisions, as it issues taxi licenses.
"We don't control licenses," he said. "That's up to the province."
The committee will hear from Uber, as well as those in the taxi industry, before forwarding its recommendation concerning the services to council. If council approves the recommendation, it would be sent to the transportation board, Dhaliwal said.
The company doesn't have plans to expand into Burnaby at this time, according to Susie Heath, a spokesperson for Uber.
"As one of British Columbia's fastest growing communities, Burnaby is seeking to better understand our technology and the many benefits that innovative platforms like ours bring," she wrote in an email to the NOW. "We have been invited by the City of Burnaby to come and talk about the benefits of the Uber platform and how it can offer safe, reliable and economical transportation alternatives for residents.
"Uber aims to expand to communities across Canada and we're always looking at what's next," she added.
Emon Bari, general manager of Bonny's Taxi and Mohan Keng, president of the B.C. Taxi Association, will also be speaking at Thursday's meeting.
Keng would not comment on what he'll be telling council until after the meeting.
"We want to represent our side," he said.
Council received a staff report on Uber back in October, which outlined concerns with the San Francisco-based company's plans to expand into Canada.
The report called the ridesharing service an "unlicensed and unregulated 'taxi service.'"
At the council meeting in October, Mayor Derek Corrigan said he opposed the service and said he was worried about the affect it would have on the local taxi industry.
"Wherever they've started, they've always been greeted with controversy," Coun. Pietro Calendino said at the meeting. "In the city of Toronto, for example, they believe that UberX, which is the taxi part of their service, contravenes city bylaws.
"Their drivers do not hold city-issued licences, haven't taken city-mandated training, have not put their cars through a city-mandated mechanical expansion, they lack safety equipment, and drivers may be inadequately insured."
Calendino pointed out Uber is banned in Brussels, Berlin, South Korea and parts of Australia. Cab drivers have protested the service worldwide.
Coun. Nick Volkow also expressed his concerns at the meeting.
"This is really a backdoor attempt at deregulating the entire industry from all sorts of rules and regulations that have been in place historically," he said. "Literally anybody who has a four-door car can get into the business of ferrying passengers around in the Lower Mainland."
In 2012, Uber briefly offered its services in Vancouver, but in November of that year the passenger board told the company there is a mandated $75 minimum per trip rate for limousine services in B.C., after which the company stopped providing services in the city.
