Calgary city council vote paves way for Uber’s return

Uber should be back in time for the Christmas party season.

On Monday, councillors voted 11 to four to make changes to the Livery Transport Bylaw, which the ride-sharing service said were necessary to allow it to operate in Calgary.

“We did what was right for Calgarians today,” Mayor Naheed Nenshi stated after the vote.

Uber provided the following statement to 660 NEWS:

“We’re pleased City Council has voted to update Calgary’s ridesharing bylaw to provide needed flexibility for local drivers. As we’ve said, these changes will allow us to offer service to riders and drivers by early December and we’ll be sharing our exact launch date with Calgarians soon!”

Owner of Associated Cab, Roger Richard, said it was wrong for council to give Uber special treatment and added, no other ride-sharing service asked for changes to the bylaw.

“This is a backroom deal by the mayor’s office,” Richard said. “Go back to April when he [Nenshi] called Uber every name in the book. Why change his tune? Is it because there might a possible lawsuit?”

Nenshi’s reply to that accusation was a simple, “whatever.”

Many cab drivers are against the changes and dozens of them showed up at council chambers on Monday.

“Uber telling the councillors and Nenshi which way they want it,” one cabbie told the media. “And guess what? They listened to what they want.”

The driver added, he’s also upset council voted to release more than 200 additional taxi plates because there are already too many drivers in the city.

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