Ottawa taxi plate owners hope class-action lawsuit will proceed

Playersin Ottawa's taxi industry are applauding a move to sue the City of Ottawa for$215 million for new rules that will allow ride-hailing companies likeUber to start operating legally at the end of September.

The suit was filed Friday bythe parent company of Capital Taxi and Marc Andre Way, whose family owns the largest number of taxi plates in the city. If the suit is successfully certified as a class action, it couldcover about 1,000 individuals who wereplate owners or taxi brokers on or after Sept. 1, 2014.

Plate owner loses trust in city

Bahador Ayoubzadeh is a single plate owner who would fall into that class action. He said he hopesitwill be certified and proceed.

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"I didn't gamble,I worked hard for my investment and they shouldn't do this to me," he said.

Ayoubzadehstarted working in the taxi industry about 25 years ago after his family moved from Iran. He bought his plate for $96,000 in 1994but is now questioning his decision.

"Back home I lost all my pension, my retirement, everything," said Ayoubzadeh."When I came here I trusted the city and I bought this plate...but unfortunately the city is not fair to us."

City to defend claim vigorously

The city says it will vigorously defend the claim that alleges it did not take"reasonable stepsto maintain the integrity" of thetaxi regulations in a way that would not financially harm taxiplate owners.

The claim also allegesthe citytook "vastly inadequate steps to enforce the regulatory scheme against Uber drivers," when they began operating in Ottawa in the fall of 2014.

"It's not a fair competition," said taxi driver Bill Parmar who agrees with the lawsuit, even though he doesn't own a plate.

"They have no laws to follow and the city's not doing anything at all," he added.

City solicitor Rick O'Connor wrote in anemail that neither he, nor anyone from the city, will be commenting on this case while it isbefore the courts