Tory wants Uber to operate in ‘good faith,’ provide upfront insurance policy

TORONTO — Mayor John Tory says Uber should act “in good faith and obey the law” 24 hours after council voted to further pursue regulating the ride-sharing services.

“To the Ubers of the world – and companies like it – I say this: I expect every company that operates in Toronto will do so in good faith and obey the law,” Tory said Thursday, adding that a crackdown on Uber is not realistic.

“There will be reasonable law enforcements made to make sure that – if laws are being broken – that those people are given tickets and what not, but I don’t expect it’s going to get to the stage where it will effective enough to stop this from happening when there are hundreds of thousands instances happening on a daily basis.”

Tory is asking the ridesharing company to earn Toronto’s trust and made reference to Uber’s secrecy around providing an upfront insurance policy.

READ MORE: Intact insurance working with Uber on new products for ridesharing

“I believe there is no excuse whatsoever not to share explicit details with us with respect to their insurance arrangements so that we – in turn – can satisfy the public that they do have the insurance they claim to have in place,” he said.

“We kind of know about it because they kind of produced some documents for some people to see during the course of the court case.”

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Tory said he is also asking the provincial government to speed up work with Intact Financial Corp. and its development of tailored policies for ridesharing services, like Uber.

Council voted to have licensing staff come back in Spring 2016 with a revised framework for new regulations for ground transportation, which would include companies like Uber and have asked the ridesharing company to pause operations in Toronto until the proper rules and regulations are established.

READ MORE: UberX users, drivers will still use service even if Council bans ridesharing app

Council also voted to drop taxi base fares by $1, from $4.25 to $3.25, starting Nov.1 to create an even playing field for cab drivers.

Councillor Shelley Carroll wants Uber to step up and apply for city issued licenses.

“Since the folks from Uber are sounding so magnanimous and ‘we want to be in Toronto’ in some of their media this morning, fine, walk in the door and get a license and shorten the process,” Carroll said.

“Become a legitimate dispatcher and begin to function as if these bylaws are already passed and speed this up a bit.”

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UberX driver Esther said this vote will not stop her from driving for the ridesharing company.

“There is nothing absolutely nothing that would stop me from driving in Toronto,” she said in an interview on Wednesday.

“I was pulled over and the policeman saw the UberX app and gave me a warning for driving without a limousine license and the warning was an $180 ticket but I’m not worried about it because Uber would pay that ticket for me … I have huge faith in Uber.”

Municipal Licensing and Standards will return with new regulations in Spring 2016.