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WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE TAXIS
JOHN BLISS <jbbtaxicab@gmail.com> Mon, Dec 19, 2016 at 2:28 PM
To: councillorweb@calgary.ca, themayor@calgary.ca, Calgary Driver <mycalgarydriver@gmail.com>
From your invisible gallery, I followed this morning’s discussion about wheelchair accessible taxis. The outcome merits some comments.
The primary concern appeared to be on dealing with the operating costs of accessible cabs. The difference being about $8005 per year more than for regular taxis.
This should not be financed by a per trip tax of any kind on cab fares, particularly when applying it to license renewal fees.
That cost difference translates into $154 per week (or $667 per month). That is income such drivers don’t have for their families.
The right thing to do, in the absence of government subsidies, is to require brokers to lower stand rents they charge across the board by $154 per week for wheelchair operators until such time as when Council or the Province can work out some sort of mill rate subsidy available to such drivers.
Politically the public should understand that such subsidies are an insurance premium against an unfortunate event which puts them in a wheelchair for the remainder of their lives.
Anyone who is presently young and in perfect health, could within a matter of minutes from now, have such an experience.
My MP The Hon Kent Hehr stands out as a poster boy for precisely what I’m talking about.
For the record, I’m a retired taxi driver with 43 years’ experience in the livery industry.
I’m now a freelance journalist and writer and currently working on a book about this whole business.
My web can be viewed at www.jbbtaxis.com.
JOHN B BLISS
Phone: 1 – 403 – 402 – 9129 e-mail: jbbtaxicab@gmail.com web: www.jbbtaxis.com cc: Robert McGregor LTAC member
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