The Ministry of Transportation has rejected a recommendation from the all-party committee examining ride-hailing.
The report has made 11 recommendations in order to bring ride-hailing to BC, including recommendations around fare regimes, boundaries, supply and class of license. The report says the regular class 5 licenses should be enough, but the Ministry wants driver to have commercial licenses, or class 4 licenses, the same licenses required for drivers of taxi, ambulances and small busses.
The Ministry says the license will provide the passengers with more safety, but the BC Liberal Transportation Critic, Jordan Sturdy, argues there is no evidence that the license will provide and extra safety, and it will hinder people who want to become drivers.
"There's an understanding that most ride-hail drivers are very much part time driver. 5 hours a week, 10 hours a week, these sorts of things. And they're driving their own vehicles, so it's not like you're driving a big truck with air brakes or something. It's also the common license around the rest of North America."
He adds that requiring a new class of license will end up hurting those who want to drive.
"There's an approximate 500 dollar fee by the time you get through the whole process. Then at this point when we asked ICBC about the timeline to get a license and go through the process to get a class 4 license, depending on the area it's anywhere between 6 weeks and several months."
He adds that this will have the biggest and worst impact on women, who are much less likely to already have a class 4 license.