The mayor of St. John's says the provincial government missed an opportunity to make the taxi industry safer, and is appealing to the minister involved to take a second look at including criminal background checks in licensing requirements for cab drivers.
Mayor Danny Breen reiterated Wednesday that the province — not the municipality — should be responsible for doing background checks to ensure taxi drivers don't have criminal records.
Breen also said the city wasn't consulted before Service NL Minister Sherry Gambin-Walsh made an announcement earlier Wednesday, alongside members of the taxi industry.
Gambin-Walsh revealed the province is making regulatory changes that include specialized driving training for new cabbies and beefing up random inspections of vehicles.
However, the province is still staying clear of requiring background checks for drivers, and is instead leaving that up to individual taxi companies and municipalities.
"I am disappointed that the city wasn't included in the consultation. We've been asking for the background checks to be included in the licensing for many years," Breen said.
"We don't think it's too late to do this."
Breen wants to avoid 'duplicating efforts'
Breen is requesting a meeting with Gambin-Walsh to ask for background checks to be added during the licensing stage. He said having the responsibility fall on the municipality would be "duplicating efforts," because the drivers will have to go through the province anyway.
"There are so many communities bordering St. John's that we would have to basically find a way to enforce regulations in other municipalities," Breen said.
During Wednesday's news conference, Gambin-Walsh noted that other jurisdictions, such as Corner Brook, have started requesting background checks and vulnerable sector checks from city taxi drivers.
Linda Ross, president and CEO of the Provincial Advisory Council on the Status of Women, had hoped Wednesday's announcement would include criminal record checks.
Her office looked at other jurisdictions across the country and found the municipalities who enforce the checks have their own municipal enforcement. St. John's does not.
"At times there are individuals who are in taxis for an hour, an hour and a half, by themselves, and the feeling is that having those types of checks would be a critical piece that would add one more element that we would consider to be passenger safety," Ross told CBC News.
Ross said some women's centres across the province are also worried about the lack of oversight.
"Take a woman who is leaving a situation of domestic violence and is going to a shelter. If you're on the Northern Peninsula, you're talking about going down to Corner Brook. That's a long time in a taxi."
Ross notes there are many excellent taxi drivers but any step towards safety of passengers would make the industry stronger.