I Must Be Somewhere Else. Someone Just Suggested Less, More Sensible Regulation. In Canada

Canada’s Competition Bureau has taken a break from aproving mega mergers with horrible idea written all over them that allow companies like Bell Media to fire everyone in sight even though they’re raking in hundreds of millions of dollars to toss out some entirely sensible suggestions on how municipalities and provinces should best handle ride sharing services like Uber. The idea, which will almost certainly be seen as revolutionary and controversial in government circles, is to ease up on the regulations other than in cases where it’s absolutely necessary and let market forces do their thing. You know, so that there’s actually some competition in the taxi space instead of what we have now. Crazy.

“When new regulations are needed, they should be limited to meeting legitimate policy objectives, like protecting the safety of passengers and drivers,” the bureau said.
Among other things, the bureau urges local regulators to:
■Ease price controls, such as regulated taxi fares, to allow fares to be adjusted during periods of varying demand, such as weekends, evenings and bad weather.
■Eliminate restrictions on the number of taxi plates issued and move to a system where additional qualified drivers may operate as vehicles‑for‑hire.
■Allow all drivers to respond to street hails, regardless of whether they work for a taxi company or ride‑sharing service, unless there is a compelling policy reason not to do so.
■Provide incentives to drivers to operate accessible vehicles in areas where consumers are under‑served.

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