Taxis in Calgary - A Short Recent History

Taxi licencing and enforcement is currently regulated by Livery Transport Services, a division of Development and Building Approvals (D&BA) since 2007.  D&BA is also responsible for Business Licensing.

Livery Transport Services was reorganized from the Transportation Department to D&BA as one outcome of an extensive bylaw review which had taken place between 2002 and 2007. 

Prior to 2002, taxi and limousine provisions were contained in a variety of bylaws and regulations which made enforcement and compliance difficult. At the request of industry, combining these various regulations into a more comprehensive document was undertaken by City Administration.

A first draft of a new taxi bylaw was released in 2002, but was quickly abandoned due to the industry’s reaction.  Amongst its contentious provisions, that draft bylaw eliminated transferability of licences, the provision which allowed licences to have value. Licences are the property of the City.

A multi-party attempt at redrafting the bylaws was initiated. During 2002 and 2003 an extensive stakeholder engagement process was undertaken with the industry.  The following are some of the events during that time:

• May 2002 – Alberta Court of Appeal determined that the City did not have the authority under the Municipal Government Act (MGA) to limit the number of taxi licences.  The City appealed that decision to the Supreme Court of Canada, and in March of 2004 the Supreme Court ruled that cities did in fact have that authority.
• June 2002 - drivers were picketing on the front steps of City Hall as the G8 Summit was coming to town.  Drivers were disgruntled over a lack of licences in the hands of drivers, among other historical issues. One study during that period concluded that Calgary had nearly 100 too many licences for the demand at the time.
• May 2003 – from that round of industry consultations, City Council adopted a new model of livery regulation which preserved transferability of licences. A draft bylaw was prepared.

While the travelling public was theoretically welcomed to participate in the process, there was no meaningful participation from anyone other than industry representatives, particularly licence holders.  Drivers were able to have varying degrees of input and influence.

By 2005, it became apparent that given the number of amendments, court challenges, and changes to the MGA, the regulatory framework was suffering from a variety of gaps and inconsistencies in order  to implement the regulatory model approved by Council in 2003 May. Industry asked for further extensions to the bylaw review process. By now, the public was completely excluded from any involvement.

In 2006 and 2007, the final details of the proposed bylaw were addressed, with a variety of external consultants engaged to provide input. Several City/industry meetings were held to finalize the process. In January 2007, Livery Transport Bylaw 6M2007 was in force.

Flash forward to 2009, and Livery Transport Services had begun the mandatory 2-year review of Bylaw 6M2007 (one of the new Bylaw provisions), with notices going out to industry participants in January 2009. Again, the public was uninvolved.

The Taxi Limousine Advisory Committee (TLAC) was then deemed responsible for undertaking the public engagement process, and has since engaged a consultant to provide input into that process. Voters for Taxis attends every meeting and attempts to have input into the issues that affect the travelling public.

One can get a sense of the extensive amount of industry and City administration effort regarding the livery industry and its bylaw and regulatory requirements by visiting the TLAC history page [scroll down] of the City’s website.  This page merely chronicles the history of the governance changes, not the total effort that went into the various review processes, particularly between 2002 and 2007.

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