Orangeville Council has voted to reopen the application period for the Taxi Bylaw Committee following a request from local taxi drivers and their employers.

According to Ross Taylor, who spoke at Council as a representative of the owners of Call-A-Cab and Orangeville Taxi, those interested in applying for the committee did not see the advertisement which ran in the Citizen.

Because of that, they were unable to meet the application deadline.

“On September 14 we attended Council, and it was announced that a committee process was started and we would have the opportunity to apply for it,” said Mr. Taylor. “When we came in during the November 9 meeting, we were advised that the application process had closed, but we were unaware that it was posted in the Orangeville Citizen.”

Town of Orangeville notices run weekly in the Citizen as a part of a bid awarded to the publication prior to last year’s budget process.

But Mayor Jeremy Williams pointed out that any information regarding notices, including the formation of committees is also available on the Town website.

“If anyone ever has questions about processes in Town Hall, they can also always call us and ask,” said Mayor Williams. “I do feel bad some members of the Taxi Community who had interest and wanted to apply didn’t get the opportunity. We did have some minor issues with the PDF application submission on our website for this committee.”

Councillors Nick Garisto, Scott Wilson and Don Kidd expressed their support for the option, with Councillor Wilson presenting a motion to re-open the application.

However, Councillors Sylvia Bradley and Gail Campbell felt that opening the applications again would not be a wise decision.

“I think the taxi people should be treated the same as with every other committee in town,” explained Councillor Sylvia Bradley. “We have 20 committees in this town, and have never opened up applications again because someone didn’t have a chance to apply, we’ve only done it when no-one applies.”

She added that her fear in supporting it would be that it would set a precedent Council wouldn’t want to get into.

“We have a good process, we have enough people who applied, and all taxi drivers are welcome to attend meetings as they are open to the public,” she said. “For all those reasons I would not support opening it up again.”

Councillor Gail Campbell also felt that re-opening the application process would set a precedent for re-opening any applications on those grounds, and felt that the interested parties had been provided avenues to find the information they needed.

“We have had applications advertised the same way for a year; nothing has changed,” she said.
“It is on the [Town] website, we’ve done it fairly, and I am not going to support re-opening it.”

Although Mayor Williams was in support of the motion, he indicated that there were only two reasons behind his support.

“The only reason I am going to support it this time is there was a glitch on the website, which could have affected the submissions, and the committee hasn’t met yet,” he explained.
“Because of that, I will support it.”

The motion carried, with all members of Council but Councillors Bradley and Campbell, voting in favour.

The application deadline for the Taxi Committee has been extended until December 31, 2015, and will remain open to both members of the industry and the general public who are interested in being a part of it.

Council indicated that their will be no further extensions, should interested parties be unable to meet the extended deadline provided.