Taxi debate heats up as 2013 arrives
Posted Dec 30, 2012 8:15 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The New Year’s rush saw a cab crunch in the city with Calgarians hoping for a safe ride home experiencing a long wait.
The President of the Calgary Cab Drivers Association Rajit Kavil says it’s because the city is short hundreds of cab drivers. However Ward 5 Alderman Ray Jones says handing out more licenses is not the answer.
“It’s like cashiers at Christmas, I mean there’s a shortage of them too but that’s because the stores are packed there’s no question that there are more people out at that time of year than during normal times of the year,” he said.
Meantime the Calgary Sun reports Kavil continues to lobby for hundreds more of the coveted pieces of paper to avoid the crunch come New Year’s or times like Stampede.
But, Rajit Kavil says his efforts are all for not because brokers or owners of the licenses have too much clout with officials at City Hall.
He says this hurts the city’s image when visitors come to Calgary.
Alderman Jones goes on to say flooding the market to help out – with a shortage that only comes a couple of times a year- doesn’t make sense.
In the last year the city handed out 55 licenses which can cost upwards of $100, 000.
