Iqaluit eases up on minor offenders seeking cab licences
People convicted of summary conviction offences won’t have to wait as long as before to get taxi licences in Iqaluit.
MICHAELA RODRIGUE
IQALUIT — Iqaluit cab driver Tom Lewis is free to pick up fares, despite an assault conviction that until last week would have barred him from driving a cab.
Last week, Iqaluit Town Council passed amendments to its taxi bylaw that will make it harder for some convicted criminals, and easier for others, to get a taxi licence.
The changes mean that Lewis’s licence will not be taken away, said Iqaluit’s bylaw officer, John Tagak.
Last June, town council was asked to cancel Lewis’s taxi licence because of an assault conviction dating to 1996. The conviction is a summary conviction.
Iqaluit’s old taxi bylaw barred anyone convicted of a summary offence in the previous three years from obtaining a taxi licence.
Summary offences are generally considered to be less serious than indictable offences and include Lewis’s assault conviction, Tagak said.
The Iqaluit council decided not to cancel Lewis’s licence after reading a letter from his wife, who asked councillors not to take away her husband’s livelihood.
Instead councillors sent the taxi bylaw back to committee for further debate and possible changes.
Last week, town council changed the bylaw so that only people who have been convicted of summary offences within the previous two years — not three — are ineligible for a taxi licence.
That means Lewis’ three-year-old conviction no longer disqualifies him from getting a taxi licence.
At the same time council made it tougher for anyone convicted of offences “relating to the illegal sale of liquor under the Liquor Act.”
People convicted under the Liquor Act will now have to wait five years after their conviction instead of two before they can receive a taxi licence.
Coun. Doug Lem, who proposed the amendments, said the changes will do a better job of catching the people council doesn’t want driving.
Lem said most people would agree that bootleggers shouldn’t be driving cabs in Iqaluit.
Coun. Matthew Spence supported Lem’s amendments because they mean that the Town is no longer violating one of its own bylaws.
“The penalties we’ve imposed reflect better on the concerns we have as public officials,” he added, saying it makes sense for council to distinguish between indictable offences and and less serious summary offences.
When asked whether someone with Lewis’ criminal record should be allowed to drive a cab, Spence responded.
“If he qualifies under the new bylaw, yes he should.”
However after amending the bylaw last Tuesday, councillors were unsure whether Lewis would qualify or not. So Spence proposed, and council passed, a motion instructing staff to take away Lewis’s licence if he violated the new bylaw.
Iqaluit taxi company owners were not notified of the proposed amendments in advance.
Kilabuk Taxi owner John Parry said the new changes shouldn’t affect his company, but he said he should have been notified.
“I would like to be informed. We’re supposed to figure it out on our own and they don’t notify us when they’re going to amend the bylaw,” Parry said.
Cab owners were notified of other changes to the bylaw, but not Lem’s proposals.
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