Latest news with #RajDhaliwal
Global News
28-05-2025
- Global News
Council eyes $15M for Calgary Transit operator safety after bus driver attacked
Calgary city council will consider a multi-million-dollar funding injection to bolster safety for transit operators, after a bus driver was assaulted while on duty. During an update to transit's RouteAhead strategy Tuesday, council unanimously supported an amendment from Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal that calls for the city to spend $15 million from reserves to retrofit buses with 'more secure security shields.' 'Right now we've got these shields — they're not even shields, they're little screens that are not that effective,' Dhaliwal told reporters. Dhaliwal's amendment also asks for transit to install new signage on all vehicles about safety and informing passengers that assaulting an operator is a federal crime, including 'non-compliance consequences.' It also calls for a review of all safety and training practices, and include an annual safety status progress report to council. Story continues below advertisement Council's debate comes after a Calgary Transit bus driver was assaulted in the early morning hours of May 13 while driving a route near Falconridge and Castleridge boulevards Northeast. Get daily National news Get the day's top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day. Sign up for daily National newsletter Sign Up By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy The driver was taken to hospital in critical condition, but was later upgraded to stable, and investigators believe he was attacked when he refused the suspects' request to detour from his original bus route. Darryl Flett, 22, and Curtis Baker, 20, were each charged with one count of aggravated assault, one count of robbery and one count of failing to comply with a court order. 'We knew it was only a matter of time before this happened,' said Mike Mahar, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 583. Mahar told Global News that drivers face harassment daily like spitting, physical threats and racial slurs; he noted efforts to make proactive changes have taken months to address. 'We just couldn't get it done at transit, administration just wasn't moving on things the way it has to happen,' he said. 'It just wasn't a priority.' During Tuesday's meeting, Calgary Transit director Sharon Fleming noted transit was looking to spend $1 million to install plastic separation barriers but could find better materials if council approves the $15 million spend. 'We have done a number of things to enhance (operator) safety. As you know we have temporary plexiglass shields on all our buses,' she told council. Story continues below advertisement 'We also have done a number of things to help with safety training and education for our operators, things like dealing with conflict de-escalation, additional customer service training.' Ward 13 Coun. Dan McLean expressed frustration with the province and federal government, and called for harsher penalties and bail reform. 'It's their responsibility, they need to crack down on this crime,' he told reporters. 'These costs are being downloaded to the city and we can only bear so much onto our taxpayers.' According to Mahar, the driver who was assaulted has been released from hospital and is recovering at home, but that recovery has a long way to go. 'It's just by whatever graces, in his words a guardian angel of some sort, that he's here today,' Mahar said. City council will make a final decision on the $15 million funding request in Dhaliwal's amendment during next week's council meeting.
Calgary Herald
13-05-2025
- Business
- Calgary Herald
Calgary councillor wants city to look into capping number of Uber, Lyft drivers
A Calgary city councillor wants the city to consider capping the allowable number of Uber and Lyft drivers, in another bid to help level the playing field between taxi companies and ride-share operators. Article content Article content Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal's notice of motion directs administration to evaluate the feasibility, benefits, risks and resource implications of creating a population-based limit on ride-share drivers, 'to manage future growth' of the growing vehicle-for-hire sector. Article content Article content His proposal unanimously passed a technical review at Tuesday's executive committee meeting and will advance to the May 27 council meeting to be debated and voted on. Article content Article content Dhaliwal argued that his motion doesn't just aim to support local cab companies, but also Calgarians who drive for Uber and Lyft, some of whom he argues are being exploited. Article content 'I've been hearing from both sides that with the supply in the market right now for licenses, it's hard to make a decent living,' he said. 'People sometimes work extended hours and they're still bringing home less than minimum wage. Many are leaving the industry because they can't sustain their household, pay mortgages or insurance.' Article content The city regulates taxis and ride-share companies through the vehicle-for-hire bylaw, which was previously known as the livery transport bylaw. The bylaw was last amended in January and has been overhauled multiple times since ride-hailing apps first arrived in Calgary in 2016. Article content Article content Under the bylaw, the city licenses transportation network companies, which in Calgary include Uber and Lyft, on an open-entry, unlimited basis, according to Dhaliwal. City records show there were more than 16,581 active drivers for Uber and Lyft in Calgary last year — approximately one for every 80 residents. Article content But he noted the same bylaw sets a fixed number of taxi plate licenses, which is currently capped at 1,880. Article content The growing disparity has undercut taxi companies' competitiveness, Dhaliwal argued, allowing Uber and Lyft's influence to proliferate. Calgary's ride-share drivers now outnumber taxi drivers nine to one. Article content 'Of course there's distortion in the market,' he said. Article content A staff report last December highlighted that annual trip volumes for ride-hailing apps continue to increase and have significantly eclipsed the number of trips recorded by taxis in Calgary since 2021. Article content Uber and Lyft recorded roughly 11.6 million trips in 2024, compared to just 2.8 million licensed taxi trips. Ride-hailing apps now control 80 per cent of the city's vehicle-for-hire market, compared to roughly 50 per cent in 2019 and 2020.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Business
- CBC
Calgary councillor calls for city to consider cap on ride-share drivers
Social Sharing A Calgary city councillor is calling for a limit on the number of ride-share drivers operating around the city to be considered. Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal is bringing a notice of motion to the city's executive committee on Tuesday that calls for administration to analyze a possible fixed or population-based cap on ride-share drivers. While the city's Vehicle-for-Hire bylaw maintains a fixed limit on taxi licences, Calgary does not have a similar cap on ride-share companies like Uber and Lyft. Dhaliwal's notice of motion says city records show there were more than 16,581 active ride-share driver licences last year. Dhaliwal said he's heard concerns about the taxi industry's future ever since he was elected to council four years ago. And he added that ride-share drivers have also said they believe having so many drivers in Calgary is having a negative effect on wages. "This is not at all taxi against ride-sharing," Dhaliwal said, adding that his goal is for drivers in both industries to earn a decent wage. "Some [ride-sharing drivers] are also telling me that with these kinds of licences out in the market, it's hard. It's hard to make a living." Some Calgary Uber drivers joined a strike across Canada last year over dropping wages and working conditions, with an uptick in drivers flooding the market cited as a reason for declining wages. In an emailed statement on Saturday, an Uber spokesperson argued a ride-share cap would make it harder for its workers to earn money, and for Calgarians to get around the city affordably and reliably. "The City of Calgary currently has a 120-page bylaw that regulates ride-sharing. Another study is not an effective use of time or money, especially when the city has larger issues to resolve," Uber spokesperson Keerthana Rang said via email. The motion would direct city administration to prepare a report examining the feasibility, benefits and risks of tools, including a cap, to manage the growth in ride-share drivers. The report would also be expected to analyze the potential effect of a cap on wheelchair-accessible service, market competition, existing contracts with the airport and major event venues, and any risk of unlicenced operations or litigation. The report would be presented to council by the third quarter of 2023. The rules ride-share drivers face in Calgary have been debated since Uber entered the market a decade ago. Associated Cabs president Roger Richard argued in 2015 that ride-share companies should follow the same rules as taxi companies. Calgary wouldn't be the only Canadian city considering a ride-share cap. In 2023, Toronto temporarily capped the number of ride-share licences in its city, but backed off following a legal challenge from Uber. In December, Toronto council revisited the issue, with the city calling for staff to present more information about the effect a cap would have. The problem Dhaliwal points to in past conversations on the ride-share companies' place in Calgary is that drivers didn't feel included. "Engage these people. Listen to them for once, please," Dhaliwal said. "And engagement is not just listening. Engagement is having a two-way conversation and considering their ideas, what they have to recommend and going back to them with some of the answers" Naeem Chaudhry, who worked in the taxi industry for more than 30 years, said he's talked to city councillors and officials on this issue for years. He argued that because apps like Uber and Lyft can have as many vehicles in Calgary as they want, many drivers are left unable to make a living, and the taxi industry's future is in jeopardy. "If we keep moving in the same direction, I think we'll eliminate the taxi industry within the next five years, perhaps 10 years," Chaudhry said.
CBC
12-05-2025
- Politics
- CBC
Ward 5 councillor wants a ride-share license cap to create fair competition with taxi industry
Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal is bringing a notice of motion to the city's executive committee calling for council to approve a feasibility report to amend livery transport bylaw.
Calgary Herald
09-05-2025
- Calgary Herald
After 29 fatal collisions last year, council agrees to fund $1 million more for traffic-calming on Calgary streets
The community development committee on Thursday unanimously endorsed pulling $1 million from a city reserve to supplement ongoing traffic-slowing measures. Article content Article content But after a year that saw 29 fatal collisions across Calgary, some councillors argued the budgetary request from administration should have been much higher. Article content The city's mobility team's annual report highlighted an alarming uptick in fatal collisions and pedestrian deaths in 2024. Article content Article content According to the report, 29 fatal collisions occurred in Calgary last year, which was 21 per cent more than 2023 and the highest total in 11 years. Article content Article content Thirteen deaths last year involved pedestrians — a 225 per cent increase, after four pedestrians died in 2023. Article content Of nearly 26,000 total vehicle collisions reported in Calgary last year, 2,908 people suffered injury and 571 were hospitalized, the report found. Article content Staff who presented the report Thursday cited various reasons for the increased number of fatal collisions, including Calgary's rapidly growing population and a rising number of new drivers, but also a shortage of resources and funding to enhance traffic-calming measures. Article content Included in staff's presentation was a request to withdraw $1 million from the city's Fiscal Stability Reserve to supplement the mobility team's 2025 budget and 'respond to urgent safer mobility improvements.' The funding would go toward installing more road humps and bump outs in collision 'hot spots,' improving crosswalk and intersection safety features, and enhancing public education initiatives. Article content Article content The mobility team's budget for safety improvements is $5 million a year, mobility director Ravi Seera said, adding they'll be asking council for $6.5 million in additional funding for 2026. Article content While councillors supported the $1-million funding request unanimously, some suggested the mobility team needs more financial support to address the number of deaths Calgary saw on its roads last year. Ward 5 Coun. Raj Dhaliwal encouraged the department to come to budget deliberations next November with a more robust ask of the new-look council. Article content 'I was hoping that with the (collision data) that we'd be more responsive to those numbers and ask for some extra funds so we can get these improvements sooner,' he told the presenters. Article content 'A million-dollar ask for this year is not much, given how big our city is. I urge you, coming November, that if $6.5 (million) is not enough, please be open with us. Look at everything and see if we need to put more money into it.'
