Cold Lake to lobby Alberta for provincewide ride-hailing rules
Council wants one set of provincial rules so companies like Uber can operate between communities. The transportation minister says the regulation is under review.
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Council approved the direction at its Oct. 27 meeting. Administration will work with ride-hailing companies and Alberta Municipalities to draft either a request for decision for the association’s 2027 spring caucus or a resolution for its 2027 fall convention, according to the staff report. The draft will come back to council for a vote before it is submitted.
Uber wants one set of rules
The push started at the Alberta Municipalities fall convention, where city staff met a representative from Uber Canada, chief administrative officer Kevin Nagoya wrote in a report to the city’s corporate priorities committee on Oct. 20.
The company prefers to enter jurisdictions where the province has made the regulations it needs to operate, the report said. Where those rules do not cover a whole province, it offers service only where it can avoid “deadheading,” when a driver drops a passenger in a community that does not allow ride-hailing and has to return empty before picking up another fare.
“This scenario prevents drivers from being able to initiate a return ride, severely hampering drivers’ business case for participating in the service,” the report said.
At the committee meeting, Nagoya told councillors a ride-hailing company is already interested in Cold Lake.
“For clarity, we have rideshare that is interested in coming to the community,” he said.
He said changing Cold Lake’s own bylaws would not be enough, because a trip that ends in a neighbouring municipality with different rules, such as the MD of Bonnyville, would require the driver to be approved again there. “So otherwise it just becomes deadheaded,” he said.
Coun. Chris Vining said residents want the service and the problem reaches beyond the region.
“It really almost feels like it’s an Alberta issue, this a rural Alberta issue,” Vining said. He moved that the city keep lobbying the province and seek an emergent resolution through Alberta Municipalities. The committee passed the motion unanimously.
Minister says rules are under review
Before the committee met, the city had written to Scott Cyr, the MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul, on behalf of Mayor Bob Mattice, asking for an update on provincial work and suggesting a pilot project in northeastern Alberta modelled on Ontario’s Northlander Rideshare Pilot Framework. The letter said “multiple rideshare platforms” had contacted the city but faced barriers from “complex intermunicipal regulations and provincial regulatory frameworks.”
Transportation and Economic Corridors Minister Devin Dreeshen replied on Oct. 8 in a letter included in the committee’s agenda package. He wrote that his department “is currently evaluating possible regulatory changes and opportunities to improve and clarify provincial rules” for transportation network companies and will share information if changes are approved.
Dreeshen said he would pass the pilot project suggestion on to the department, but declined to meet. “Regrettably, my schedule does not permit me to meet with you regarding this matter at this time,” he wrote.
Under the province’s Transportation Network Companies Regulation, Alberta sets licensing rules for ride-hailing companies, including insurance, driver licensing, background checks, vehicle standards and record-keeping. Municipalities can add their own bylaws, and companies must follow both the provincial rules and the bylaws of each community they serve, according to the province’s website.
Next steps
Andrew Serba, the city’s strategic initiatives manager, told council on Oct. 27 that the goal is to end a patchwork where ride-hailing works in some places and not others.
“Having provincial-wide regulations would allow companies such as Uber to extend their operations into smaller and more sparsely populated areas of the province,” Serba said. Coun. Vining moved the recommendation and council approved it without debate. The full discussion is on the city’s video of the meeting.
The staff report noted that taxi and bus companies generally oppose such changes because they increase competition, and warned the province “could be slow to act” if the issue is not a priority.
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