The Taxi Bylaw was a topic of discussion at the Town of Peace River’s Governance and Priorities meeting last night.
Mayor Tom Tarpey says it’s likely changes are on the way to the current Taxi Bylaw which will affect how quickly taxi companies can get new drivers on the road.
“There’s going to be some changes to the Taxi Bylaw and this will process people through the safety checks for taxi drivers a little more expeditiously so they can get to work a lot quicker, and at the same time, protect public safety,” says Tarpey.
The Town says the changes would include a prospective taxi driver providing a clean drivers abstract, along with a vulnerable sector check through the RCMP. A temporary permit would then be provided once those two documents have been accepted and the driver has a clean record. After that, the driver would submit their fingerprints for a check and would only receive their full taxi permit once their finger prints come back clean. If the finger prints don’t come back clean the driver’s temporary permit is pulled. A $1,000 fine is issued to those who provide false information on their application.
After the meeting on Monday night, Tarpey explained the next steps for the proposed Taxi Bylaw.
“Today was just a discussion around the key points of the bylaw,” says Tarpey. “So it will come to regular council meeting and be voted in or voted down depending on the will of council, but I expect it to be passed and be enacted in about a week’s time. I imagine most of the discussion has happened at this Governance and Priorities meeting and it’ll probably be an up-and-down vote next week.”
The next regular council meeting is next Tuesday at 5 p.m.
-JD
