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On August 16, 2016, the city of Toronto licensed Uber as a private transportation company.
This came as Toronto city council had already voted in May to legalize the ride-hailing company. It had authorized Uber on an interim basis since July 15, 2016, when the Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw came into effect.
The next step for the city is to start screening Uber drivers
In a statement to CBC News, Uber spokesperson Susie Heath said the license “comes as a result of cooperating with the City of Toronto as they work to implement the new city bylaw.”
Taxi services in Toronto had made a strong push back against Uber, including staging a few rolling demonstrations through the city centre.
Despite the protests, the city went ahead and licensed the ride-haling company with the promise of screening drivers, which is one of the reasons why the taxi companies didn’t want Uber accepted in Toronto.
It is now up to Toronto to set up a screening process for drivers but it is unclear how much new information will be included in the screening questions or how much it will differ from taxi licenses.
With this news, Uber has already announced that there are fewer of their cars on the road.
The association representing Toronto’s taxi drivers slammed council for allowing new cars on the road when taxi cabs are already apparently suffering when the Pan Am Games left the city.
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