Area residents looking to catch a cab will be aided by the City of Flin Flon’s approval of a new transit bylaw earlier this month.
Passed during the Feb. 5 council meeting, the bylaw is meant to regulate which taxi transit companies are authorized to operate within Flin Flon, keeping operations to a small number of existing businesses.
“Basically there are three main components. There are rules for cab companies themselves, rules for their vehicles and rules for the drivers. Those details are laid out pretty clearly in the bylaw,” said councillor Tim Babcock.
“Drivers need abstracts, criminal record checks, et cetera. Cars need safeties and proper signage. Companies also have rules to follow, documentation and that sort of thing.”
In order to get the transit bylaw together, Babcock said taxi companies met with city representatives to hammer out a deal.
“The thing that I’m most proud of is that our committee invited all of the current taxi companies to the table to discuss the proposed changes,” he said. “We had four representatives come to different meetings and hammer this out with us.”
Babcock said the bylaw came two years after a provincial government decision on taxi regulation shifted responsibility for governance to urban and rural municipalities.
“Our bylaw was pretty outdated. It was from the 1980s. We have taken our time to get this right,” he said.
Public safety is the main goal of the new bylaw, said Babcock, keeping people in licensed cabs and away from potentially sketchy, backseat rides.
“We don’t want a scenario where people are getting rides from unlicensed vehicles and uninsured drivers. The new bylaw ensures that licensed cabs are recognizable by the permits that are going to be prominently displayed. The drivers’ ID will also be displayed, along with a phone number to call if things aren’t up to standard,” he said.
“Because it’s something new, we expect it will take up to six months for all of the changes. These are things that most of the companies in town were already doing, but it is going to take time for some of the administration and signage.”
