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March 27, 2019 B.C. Today – Daily Report March 27, 2019 Quotation of the day “Kater is lipstick on a pig. It is not true ride-hailing.” Liberal MLA Stephanie Cadieux, deputy chair of the Select Standing Committee on Crown ​ ​ Corporations, is not a fan of the app-based ride-hailing company that is set to launch in B.C. ​ ​ Today in B.C. On the schedule The House will convene at 1 p.m. to allow the government to hold its weekly Wednesday morning cabinet meeting. Tuesday’s debates and proceedings No new legislation was introduced on Tuesday. NDP MLA Bowinn Ma (North Vancouver —Lonsdale), chair of the Select Standing Committee ​ ​ on Crown Corporations, tabled Transportation Network Services: Boundaries, Supply, Fares ​ and Driver’s Licences, the committee’s report on ridesharing. ​ ​ ​ Attorney General David Eby tabled the annual report of the B.C. Labour Relations Board. ​ ​ ​ ​ Finance Minister Carole James tabled a revised strategic plan. ​ ​ The House spent the day at second-reading debate on Bill 10, Income Tax Amendment Act. If ​ ​ passed, it will finalize B.C.’s pro-LNG fiscal framework. Committee A completed its review of the estimates for the Ministry of Citizens’ Services. In the House Health Minister Adrian Dix introduced representatives from the Heart and Stroke Foundation to ​ ​ the chamber. The foundation hosted a breakfast event for MLAs yesterday morning. Tourism, Arts and Culture Minister Lisa Beare welcomed members of the Canada national ​ ​ rugby team to the House. Labour Minister Harry Bains introduced Canadian Union of Public Employees B.C. president ​ ​ Paul Faoro, and Finance Minister Carole James welcomed representatives from the Victoria ​ ​ ​ Epilepsy and Parkinson’s Centre. B.C. will have ride-hailing with commercially licensed drivers in 2019: transportation minister B.C. should take a hands-off approach to regulating ride-hailing, according to a new report by the tri-partisan Select Standing Committee on Crown Corporations. Ride-hailing companies operating in the province should not be subject to fare boundaries or restrictions on the size of their fleet, the committee recommends, nor the creation of “a minimum per-trip price that is not less than the cost of public transit.” Three of the committee’s recommendations are lifted directly from its previous report, published last March, including a requirement that ride-hailing companies provide government with data about wait times, trip lengths, accessible vehicle statistics and other relevant metrics for monitoring purposes and that the taxi industry in the province be required to do the same. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Claire Trevena thanked the committee for its work, ​ ​ even as she immediately rejected one of its recommendations. “I will not move on Class 4 licences,” Trevena told reporters, citing safety concerns. “We will continue to require Class 4 licences of drivers of ride-hailing vehicles as is required in other jurisdictions where there is ride-hailing, such as Alberta.” The requirement that ride-hailing drivers to obtain Class 4 commercial licences — the same grade of licence required by taxi and bus drivers — was included in an NDP bill that passed last fall. Ride-hailing companies will be able to apply to the Passenger Transportation Board for licences by the end of the summer, Trevena pledged, and ICBC will be hiring more driving examiners to keep up with an anticipated increase in demand for exams. “I know that people are eager for new options and for better service to get around,” Trevena said, noting that the previous Liberal government “did not take any action” to make ride-hailing a reality in B.C. “It is clear that the public and the app-based ride-hailing industry are concerned about B.C. adopting a regulatory model that is overly restrictive.” Asked if the government will consider loosening restrictions on ride-hailing companies if major players like Uber and Lyft find the regulatory regime too onerous, Trevena was vague. “It’s going to be up to each individual company … how they operate. I want people to have the opportunity to use their apps to hail a car,” she said. “There is clearly a need, clearly a demand and this will clear the way.” Premier John Horgan defended his government’s approach to ride-hailing during his weekly ​ ​ media availability with legislature reporters yesterday afternoon. “I am absolutely confident that ride-hailing will be here in 2019,” the premier said. Liberal Party reaction Liberal MLA Stephanie Cadieux, who serves as deputy chair of the committee, said she and ​ ​ her fellow Liberal committee members — Jas Johal and Peter Milobar — are “hopeful but not ​ ​ ​ ​ optimistic” that the NDP government will accept the committee’s recommendations in full. “Today, we are here with the same recommendations that we have been making all the way along, regulations to enable true ride-hailing to operate in B.C.,” Cadieux said of the Liberal caucus’ position on the issue. Cadieux was dismissive of Trevena’s assertion that requiring ride-hailing drivers to obtain commercial licences will boost the safety of their service, calling the perceived boost in safety “arbitrary.” “In order to get true ride-hailing on the road for British Columbians as British Columbians have and are demanding, government can’t get in the way,” Cadieux told reporters. Requiring ride-hailing drivers, many of whom are “driving very casually” and “not a regular employee” of the company that pays them, to obtain an expensive commercial licence is “unrealistic” according to Cadieux, who pointed out that most jurisdictions in which ride-hailing companies have been operating for years do not require drivers to be commercially licensed. She was skeptical of Trevena’s assertion that B.C. will see ride-hailing services on the road in 2019. “If government accepts the recommendations and moves quickly to write the regulations accordingly then, theoretically, companies will choose to start to enter the market,” Cadieux said. “Realistically, the earliest is probably [next] spring.” Green Party reaction “British Columbians have waited far too long for ride-hailing services,” said Green MLA Adam ​ Olsen, the party’s lone member on the committee. “Now it’s time for action.” ​ He called on the government to implement the committee’s recommendations without delay. “Government has set the expectation that British Columbians will be able to request a ride from operators this calendar year,” he said. “It is now entirely their responsibility to action the recommendations of the SSCCC report and deliver on their promise.” Stakeholder reaction The Ridesharing Now for B.C. coalition, which includes the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, called on the government to adopt the committee’s recommendations — including waiving the requirement that ride-hailing drivers obtain Class 4 licences. “This additional and onerous requirement will severely impact the number of drivers who will sign up to drive ... making it harder for riders to get a ride when they need one, similarly to what British Columbians already experience with the current taxi model,” the coalition said in a statement. It has launched a petition to pressure the government on the issue. ​ ​ TappCar, a Canadian ride-hailing company headquartered in Edmonton, said the committee’s recommendations do not go far enough and will result in a “wild west rideshare economy.” ​ “B.C. should not let itself be bullied by international companies who want to see it adopt risky rules and regulations in the name of nothing more than profits,” spokesperson Pascal Ryffel ​ said in a statement. "TappCar has seen the consequences of this kind of deregulation in other jurisdictions — particularly drivers operating without commercial licences that come part in parcel with health and criminal background checks and companies operating without caps on surge pricing or the number of vehicles they can have on the road, causing congestion.” Today’s events March 27 at 3:15 p.m. – Victoria ​ Attorney General David Eby will meet with federal Minister of Border Security and Organized ​ ​ Crime Reduction Bill Blair to discuss money laundering in British Columbia. Eby and Blair will ​ ​ speak to reporters at the Golden Gates outside the legislative chamber following their meeting. Topics of conversation ● Premier John Horgan is the third most popular Canadian premier, according to the ​ ​ latest popularity poll from Angus Reid. Horgan’s approval rating has lingered around 50 ​ ​ per cent since he assumed office in the summer of 2017. This month’s 52 per cent approval rating represents a five per cent increase over December, when Horgan’s approval rating hit a low of 43 per cent. ○ Horgan trails Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe (59 per cent) and Quebec ​ ​ Premier François Legault, who enjoys a 60 per cent approval rating less than ​ ​ six months into his mandate. Fewer than one quarter of Nova Scotians approve of Premier Stephen McNeil, the least popular premier according to the survey. ​ ​ ● A B.C. finance ministry intervention to raise high-roller betting limits in B.C. casinos, against the advice of the province’s Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch (GPEB), may have helped send B.C.’s money laundering issue into overdrive, according to reporting ​ from Global News. In May 2015, then-finance minister Mike de Jong defended a ​ ​ direction from his ministry to raise betting limits to $100,000 per hand as “in the public interest” because the move would raise more revenue from casinos. ○ “I don’t recall the specific transaction,” de Jong told Global. “The B.C. Gaming Policy Enforcement Branch would bring options to the minister … and the recommendations were followed … on the rare occasions, when the minister would be involved. And I’m not sure, that this decision went to the ministerial level.” ● The B.C. NDP has expanded its lead on the provincial Liberals in popular support, according to a new Mainstreet Research poll.
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