Canadian Taxi Association
As the only national association dedicated to our industry, the Canadian Taxi Association is committed to a vibrant and respected taxi industry across Canada by giving taxi operators a powerful voice at all levels of government and the support they need to succeed.
President’s Message
from CTA President Marc André Way
Seven months after Ontario announced its intention to conduct a pilot project regarding “rideshare” services along the planned Northlander train corridor, Regulation 136/26 was posted on May 14th, 2026.
The Canadian Taxi Association invested unprecedented amounts of work and resources in efforts to impact these new regs, contributing to the consultations; the draft regulation; and the final regulation which came into effect on May 19th.
Some of the ideas we submitted in response to the draft regulations appear to have resulted in changes in areas including driver standards; compliance and enforcement; training; and data security.
Our suggestions in other areas – including driver/vehicle registration and insurance gaps were not incorporated into the final pilot regulations.
A comparison of the April and May versions confirms a consistent pattern — the final regulation is more legally detailed and precise than the original proposal across operational requirements, but leaves critical governance functions in public safety and reporting; privacy law; labour law; competition law; constitutional rights; Indigenous consultation; environmental accountability; and algorithmic regulation entirely outside the regulatory framework. Expansion of this pilot province-wide without addressing these dimensions would replicate these gaps at provincial scale.
The pilot project, which will impact communities from Minden and Muskoka to North Bay, Sudbury, and Timmons is scheduled to end on May 27th, 2027.
While there are instances in which running a pilot project before designing and implementing a full-blown new government initiative makes sense, this is not one of them. This pilot project alone may cause such damage to existing licensed, law-abiding Taxi services in these communities that it could annihilate the very services residents and communities depend upon, including 24-hour service; Accessible service; and local management.
The Canadian Taxi Association worked with the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police in an effort to persuade Ontario to use the pre-launch period to hold meaningful working group meetings, to discuss how new technologies could be used to improve passenger safety in ground transportation. The development of Regulation 136/26 provided a golden opportunity for government, industry and law enforcement to work together to create effective new program for driver and vehicle registration and identification to create a single system.
It is unfortunate Ontario declined this opportunity to support long-serving local family businesses, and to improve safety for its citizens. The CTA is committed to continue pressing for this conversation in the year ahead, in advance of any amended regulations being developed after close of the pilot on May 27th.
It will be incumbent upon Ontario to do a full review of the pilot results before there can be any consideration of rolling out these regulations province-wide.
The CTA encourages the province to do so, and we are standing by ready to assist in any way possible.
