Grieving mother questions why Toronto licensed 40,000 ride-hail drivers without mandatory training
More than 40,000 licenses for vehicle-for-hire drivers have been issued in the City of Toronto even though those drivers haven't received the mandatory training.
The city's licensing department says it's a temporary measure that allows drivers to continue to be licenced during the pandemic, but critics say the decisions to let untrained drivers carry passengers could make the city's roads less safe.
"I really do believe there's no excuse for this," said Cheryl Hawkes, whose 28-year-old son, Nicholas Cameron, died in an Uber vehicle in March 2018.
"They've exposed all of us, everybody who hires a vehicle to transport them, rideshares, limos, taxis – there's no legal requirement for training right now," she said.
Ride-share drivers and taxi drivers must have a class G or higher provincial driver's licence, pass screening and vehicle requirements, and carry $2 million in insurance coverage.
But in 2019, amid safety concerns including those related to Cameron's death, city council introduced mandatory training as a new requirement, which was supposed to be in place by June 2020.
"It is our understanding that as of today, there is still no training program," wrote Eric K Gillespie, a lawyer representing the taxi industry, to the city. "However, the city has licensed more than 40,000 drivers without requiring the training mandated under the by-law. In our respectful view, the lack of mandatory driver training creates a significant risk to the public."
City licensing staff say the pandemic hobbled their ability to provide any in-person training.
"In March of 2020, with the pandemic hitting us, it totally changed, and we weren't able to deliver training in classrooms and training in cars," said Carleton Grant, the director of Toronto's Municipal Licensing and Standards.
But that doesn't explain why the city continued to issue those licences, says Abdul Mohamoud, the CEO of Co-op taxi. He said the number of his drivers has shrunk along with demand in the pandemic, from 1,100 to fewer than 100 at one point.
"We haven't had any new drivers because our business dropped 90 per cent, so when the order came to stay at home, it was like an emergency brake that was pulled on our business," he said.
City Councillor Krystin Wong-Tam said that without an established training protocol in place, she doesn't believe the city should be issuing any more licences to Uber or Lyft drivers.
"I do not believe that COVID-19 is a legitimate reason on why we don't have mandatory training for drivers, largely because this council direction came in 2019. We do know that this is important to city council. We did say to city staff, 'Get this done.'"
Municipal Licensing Standards says it will be bringing a report forward in November.
-With files from Janice Golding.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
It's no secret that spring can be a tumultuous time for Canadian weather, and as an unseasonably mild El Nino winter gives way to summer, there's bound to be a few swings in temperature that seem out of the ordinary. From Ontario to the Atlantic, though, this week is about to feel a little erratic.
What a urologist wants you to know about male infertility
When opposite sex couples are trying and failing to get pregnant, the attention often focuses on the woman. That’s not always the case.
He replaced Mickey Mantle. Now baseball's oldest living major leaguer is turning 100
The oldest living former major leaguer, Art Schallock turns 100 on Thursday and is being celebrated in the Bay Area and beyond as the milestone approaches.
'It was instant karma': Viral video captures failed theft attempt in Nanaimo, B.C.
Mounties in Nanaimo, B.C., say two late-night revellers are lucky their allegedly drunken antics weren't reported to police after security cameras captured the men trying to steal a heavy sign from a downtown business.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.