A B.C. Supreme Court judge will rule Friday morning on whether the City of Surrey should stop ticketing Uber drivers operating without a business licence, which the ridesharing company argues is illegal.
Lawyers for both sides in the dispute were in court Wednesday to plead their cases over an injunction sought by Uber against the city, which has already issued multiple $500 fines to drivers since the company launched in Metro Vancouver last month.
Surrey Mayor Doug McCallum has said drivers will continue to be fined until Uber is granted a business licence, yet council has not made it possible for ridesharing companies to apply for those licences.
Uber lawyer Michael Feder told the judge that McCallum’s recent statements have been “disingenuous” in the face of past vows to Surrey taxi drivers that the city would “not be issuing any business licence to ridesharing companies in Surrey,” as he said back in September.
Feder read that and other similar quotes by McCallum into the record, while submitting the full transcript of the mayor’s Jan. 27 press conference where he urged Uber to apply for a licence.
“What’s happening in Surrey is embarrassing,” he told the judge, while also citing Premier John Horgan’s “extraordinary statement” last week to McCallum to back down in the fight.
“It is embarrassing, if not shameful, to have the mayor called out by the premier and the transportation minister,” Feder said.
The province has repeatedly said the Passenger Transportation Board’s approval of Uber and Lyft to operate in Metro Vancouver means municipalities cannot stand in the way.
Drivers have since come forward to say they’ve been caught in “sting operations” where they’ve been called to pick up a fare, only to be faced with bylaw officers.
Uber is asking the judge for an injunction that would immediately halt all tickets, fines or sanctions against the company’s drivers who are operating in Surrey. Feder added the company would gladly apply for a licence if it thought for a second it could get one.
James Yardley, the lawyer for the City of Surrey, argued McCallum doesn’t speak for the city, which has not been stripped of its powers to grant or revoke business licences.
Justice Veronica Jackson, however, disputed Yardley’s characterization of McCallum’s comments, pointing out each of his statements against Uber have been issued through official city channels.
“No one member of council binds a city in any municipality,” Yardley said.
“He speaks for the city,” said the judge.
“The mayor, on his own, does not decide whether business licences are issued,” Yardley later said, adding that’s the responsibility of city staff.
“Does he know that?” the judge asked.
“Frankly it doesn’t matter if he knows that,” said Yardley.
The city argued the test for an injunction has not been met in this case, because any claims of irreparable harm by Uber are purely speculative at this point.
The city further claimed that Uber does not intend to apply for a business licence with Surrey.
Uber has said it is looking forward to applying for the forthcoming inter-municipal business licence that would cover all of the Lower Mainland, as well as potentially municipalities along the Sea-to-Sky Corridor.
McCallum said last week he supports the framework for the licence, but did not join other mayors in promising to bring it to council for approval as soon as possible.
—With files from Emily Lazatin, Ted Chernecki and the Canadian Press