COLD LAKE - The City of Cold Lake has addressed concerns raised by the Cold Lake Regional Chamber of Commerce regarding a decision made at a Corporate Priorities Committee meeting in September 2024, where members decided against amending the City’s Taxi Bylaw.
During the more recent regular council meeting on Jan.14, City council revisited the topic considering a letter from the Chamber of Commerce, dated Nov. 22, 2024. The Chamber’s letter questioned the City’s stance on ridesharing with companies like Uber and Lyft and emphasized its potential economic, social, and environmental benefits.
“At its Sep. 17 meeting, the Committee decided to make no changes to the Taxi Bylaw since no requests for ridesharing have been made in the community,” said Andrew Serba, the City’s Manager of Economic Development, Communications, and Strategy.
“The Chamber's letter states that the decision effectively prohibits ridesharing from happening in Cold Lake and further states that the community is missing the economic, social and environmental benefits that ridesharing could bring,” said Serba.
However, he clarified that “ride sharing is not strictly prohibited in the city since the services could operate provided that they did comply with the Taxi Bylaw.”
Coun. Chris Vining explained the rationale behind the Committee’s decision and likened it to the initial introduction of ride sharing in other municipalities. “Other cities hadn't constructed bylaws until there was a request to do something different,” Vining noted.
The current Taxi Bylaw requires vehicles used for hire to adhere to specific regulations, such as displaying the business name, passing vehicle inspections, and maintaining commercial insurance.
Vining stated that creating a specific ride-sharing bylaw would be resource-intensive due to the extensive consultation and administrative work required. He questioned the need for such an effort.
Vining also questioned the necessity of preemptively creating a ridesharing framework without any indication of interest from potential operators.
“It wasn’t a priority for administration to have to be going down this road when we don’t even know when or if there will be a request for a company that wants to come to Cold Lake and start a venture like this,” he said.
Council expressed confidence that future requests for ridesharing services would be addressed appropriately.
Vining concluded, “I’m certainly confident that the council of the day will deal with it appropriately when the time comes.”
Council approved a recommendation that administration draft a formal response to the Chamber of Commerce’s concerns, ensuring that the City’s position on ridesharing is clarified, and that the possibility of future discussions remains open.
