The municipality says it hasn’t heard a beep from the ridesharing company in more than a year.
“I don’t know whether we’re lucky that our legislation is something that is keeping them away, we just don’t know the reason, but we do know that they haven’t made any effort to a put a real strong push into coming to Halifax,” municipal spokesperson Brendan Elliott said.
Elliot said he couldn’t speculate for sure as to why the company has yet to offer its brand of app-based rides from drivers in their own vehicles in the municipality.
“You’d have to ask them why they’re not here,” he said.
Uber did not respond to an email from Metro.
The legislation Elliott referred to would make the way Uber typically does business illegal in Halifax.
“We have had meetings in the past with Uber -- none recently -- where we have explained that if they set up shop in Halifax they would have to use already licensed cab drivers,” he said.
“If they were to do what they’ve done in other municipalities where these people that they hire are not licensed, we would have a problem with that.”
Last month, Ottawa, one of seven cities in Canada where Uber does operate, amended its bylaws to take the “handcuffs off the taxi industry,” legalizing rideshare services like Uber and placing some conditions on drivers, like mandatory record checks and beefed up insurance.
Earlier this year, Ottawa had slapped Uber drivers with hefty fines for operating without licenses, which is exactly what would happen in Halifax if the company were to operate here.
“It certainly sounds like an issue that at some point the municipality will have to deal with,” Elliott said.
But probably not any time soon.
“I can tell you that we haven’t had any meetings with them in the last year. If they are planning to expand into Halifax in a major way, we haven’t seen it, we haven’t heard that that’s what they want to do.”
