City rejects taxi drivers’ plea for extra fees

JOHN THOMPSON

Iqaluit’s taxi industry is tired of doubling as a moving service, the city’s finance committee heard last week.

Robert Kavanaugh, the city’s chief by-law officer, brought forward a proposal that would allow taxi drivers to charge passengers who carried several pieces of luggage an extra fee.

Committee members voted down the motion, which means it won’t be brought before council.

After councilors cast their votes, Kavanaugh had one word for them. “Strike,” he said, pounding his fist for emphasis on the table before walking away from the microphone. “If you don’t watch it, you’ll have a strike on your hands,” he later said, from his seat in the corner of the room.

“We rule nothing out,” Craig Dunphy of Pai-Pa Taxi, said after the meeting. The taxi industry isn’t unionized, he said, “But if everyone gets sick, there’s nothing we can do.”

In 2001, taxi drivers disrupted service for several days during negotiations with the city for a fare increase.

“Anything that has to do with the taxi industry, they have been against 100 per cent,” Dunphy said.

Several models for an extra fee were suggested during the meeting. Dunphy said he prefers one that would see passengers carrying more than two bags charged an extra $2 for every extra piece of luggage. This wouldn’t apply to groceries, he said.

Dunphy described cases where cab drivers have responded to calls only to find residents ready to move house, waiting outside with mattresses and end tables to load into the taxi.

“They’re filling up the entire car. Anything they can fit, and they expect us to take it from point A to point B for $5.”

In another example, several passengers from the airport loaded one vehicle with their luggage, then all but one walked. “It’s ridiculous,” he said.

During the meeting Coun. Theresa Rodrigue said she’s concerned that taxi drivers would use the additional fee unfairly.

“We know how much the taxi industry has the tendency to exploit residents of Iqaluit,” she said. “They aren’t all good, and they aren’t all honest.”

Others were more sympathetic. Coun. Simanuk Kilabuk, who drove a cab for 10 years, said he recalls trips where the trunk wouldn’t close because of luggage. “I know about this,” he said.

But he’s concerned residents lugging a few bags to go fishing down by the causeway during the summer will be burned. Others worried that low-income residents picking up food mail from the airport couldn’t afford higher fares.

Dunphy said in the future he’ll ask his drivers to turn away passengers who want to carry any luggage that doesn’t fit inside the trunk. “If you can’t put it in the trunk, too bad.”