A large crowd gathered in Leamington Monday afternoon for a hearing on taxi service.
The municipality's appeal committee, made up of four Leamington councillors, held a hearing to determine if four taxi companies that service Leamington should lose their licences. Each company was given an opportunity to answer to alleged violations of their owner's licence under a bylaw passed in October 2016 by council.
Councillor John Jacobs chaired the hearing, along with clerk Brenda Percy, councillor John Hammond and Deputy Mayor Hilda MacDonald.
The room was full of taxi company employees and their supporters, anxious over whether the licences would be revoked, at least temporarily, or if extensions would be allowed.
One supporter who relies on taxi transportation, Michael Dappner, said losing taxi service would be highly inconvenient for residents and those who work in Leamington.
"In the wintertime, especially, or in bad weather, who am I going to rely on to take a cab?" asked Dappner.
A focus of Dappner's frustration is Ruth Orton, Leamington's director of legal and legislative services. She told BlackburnNews.com last week that taxi companies were given ample opportunity to communicate with the municipality. Orton also said the companies had plenty of notice on the new bylaw and plenty of time to make changes and ask questions.
The municipality had given the taxi companies six months to comply with the terms of the bylaw.
Dappner said he has questioned the municipality about what he sees as an increase in fares and also questions the need for this kind of bylaw enforcement.
"A fare that used to be $6 for seniors last year... is now over $10 for that same fare," said Dappner. "Now what's going to happen if they shut all the cab companies down, because of some stupid little minor things that they never followed up on in the first place?"
Three of the four taxi companies, Leamington Yellow Taxi, Nader's Taxi and Leamington Taxi, are accused of failing to submit a site plan for approval for their respective business premises. In addition, the fourth company, Sun Parlour Taxi, is accused of parking cabs on municipally-owned land or highways.
Leamington Yellow Taxi is also facing hearing request for an extension of a site plan to add more parking spaces.
Danielle Truax, Leamington's manager of planning services, explained the site plan process to the appeals committee during the hearing. She said after the municipality receives the submission from the company, they follow up with the company two or three weeks later to get additional information. Final approval comes four to six months after submission.
In an email late Monday night to BlackburnNews.com, Orton said no decisions were made by the appeals committee at the hearing. The taxi companies will receive written notice of the decision, but Orton did not have a timetable.