BC Greens would bring in rideshare by fall 2017

May 2 2017, 11:37 pm

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The BC Greens would bring rideshare services to British Columbia as soon as fall 2017, according to party leader Andrew Weaver.

In a sit-down interview with the Daily Hive editorial team, Weaver said that if elected, the BC Greens would implement rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft as soon as possible.

“[It would happen] right away,” Weaver told Daily Hive. “Probably in the fall of this year.”

That puts the BC Greens’ timetable for rideshare ahead of the BC Liberals, who have promised to launch it in December, and the BC NDP who say it could take a while.

BC Greens’ rideshare plan

In the BC Greens’ platform, the party has committed to bringing rideshare to BC. But the Greens have not mentioned how they will implement their plan.

Weaver said the Greens already laid out their detailed plan in the legislation that he introduced twice before–once in 2016 and most recently in February 2017.

“There are a couple of things that we haven’t put in the platform because we’ve already committed to doing it,” he said.

According to Weaver’s latest ridesharing bill, these are some of the rules the BC Greens would implement when rideshare comes to BC:

  • Rideshare companies must be registered
  • Only people 19 and older will be able to provide rideshare services
  • Drivers require a background check and must provide vehicle records
  • All rideshare vehicles must undergo inspections
  • No street hails will be permitted
  • Rideshare vehicles must be insured by certificate or policy

Emerging Economy Taskforce

Weaver also promises to create an Emerging Economy Task Force, which will focus on BC’s new tech economy and sectors, including rideshare.

The Task Force would be made up of a non-partisan panel of experts to advise the new BC Green government on areas in which they don’t have specialist knowledge.

The idea (with the Task Force) is to learn about what is happening and the best way to learn about what’s happening is to have the experts in the area.” 

According to the Greens’ platform, the Task Force would report to government by July 2018.

Rideshare the ‘right thing to do’

For Weaver, bringing rideshare to BC is essential, to encourage tech innovation in the province.

“What sort of jurisdiction tries to claim it’s a tech innovator if they’re not willing to embrace tech innovation?” he said.

“For (the Greens) it was about the principle of policy. We put in rideshare enabling policy, because it’s the right thing to do.”


To find more guides to all the issues, young voter profiles, and interviews with the BC party leaders, check out our full BC Election coverage here: Battleground BC.

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