A ride share driver drives a car for Uber in, Toronto, in December, 2024.Christopher Katsarov/The Globe and Mail
The City of Toronto is barring its employees from using the services of American rideshare companies such as Uber UBER-N and Lyft LYFT-Q, part of broader government efforts to drive business away from U.S. companies during the trade war started by President Donald Trump.
The move is part of Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow’s economic action plan in response to U.S. tariffs – a series of measures designed to encourage Torontonians and city staff to shop local and buy Canadian-made goods.
In a motion adopted by Toronto’s city council on Wednesday, the city advised employees to stop using “U.S.-based ridesharing platforms, where locally owned alternatives exist.” The directive also placed restrictions on new Tesla vehicles participating in the city’s Zero Emissions Grants Program for vehicles-for-hire, a program that provides financial support to rideshare drivers who use electric cars.
City staff are also being asked to refrain from using delivery giant Amazon for official business. Ms. Chow said last week that the city will prioritize Canadian suppliers for procurement and bar some U.S. companies from bidding on contracts.
“Canadian taxis, rideshares and retailers are widely available alternatives. We recognize there may be some exceptional circumstances where there is no alternative provider, for example when travelling internationally, and limited exceptions (to use Uber and Lyft) may be granted,” Zeus Eden, press secretary to Ms. Chow, said in a statement to The Globe and Mail. City staff who have no other option but to use Uber and Lyft for transportation will have their expenses reviewed by the city manager before they are approved.
Canadian rideshare company Hovr, and domestic taxi companies such as Beck Taxi and Royal Taxi, had been campaigning for weeks for the city to ban the use of Uber and Lyft by city employees. In a letter sent to the mayor’s office this week, the taxi companies called on the city to begin an investigation into the impact American rideshare companies have had on the taxi industry.
The city’s initiative to bar its own employees from using Uber and Lyft is a good start, said Harrison Amit, founder and chief executive officer of Hovr. “It is important that we nurture our own domestic rideshare companies especially in times like this,” he said.
He said that Hovr (which operates only in Toronto and is still trying to break into a rideshare market dominated by Uber and Lyft) has seen a 100-per-cent increase in rider downloads since Mr. Trump’s inauguration. “We see city councillors using our app now. We’re happy that our proposal to ride local was accepted by the city,” Mr. Amit added.
The city was unable to immediately provide figures on its annual taxi expenses.
It employs more than 40,000 people, excluding those working at the city’s agencies, boards and commissions such as the Toronto Transit Commission and the Toronto Public Library system. In a memo about Toronto’s tariff action plan, Ms. Chow recommended that city-adjacent employees also participate in reducing their use of American goods and services.
The Buy Canadian movement has been gaining traction across the country over the past two months, fuelled by trade and sovereignty tensions with the U.S. Travel agencies have reported widespread cancellations of trip by Canadian tourists to the U.S. – data from Statistics Canada released last week showed that the number of Canadians taking road trips to the U.S. had dropped by 23 per cent in February, compared with a year ago.
Consumer boycotts have sprouted a slew of apps such as Maple Scan and Buy Beaver, which let shoppers scan QR codes to determine if a product originates from south of the border.
The City of Toronto is also advising its staff against travelling to the U.S. whether for official business or personal reasons. Travel to the U.S. for official reasons will only be approved by the city manager if the travel is related to negotiations about tariffs and the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
In a statement, Uber spokesperson Keerthana Rang said barring employees from using companies that provide earning opportunities to Canadians is “counterproductive.”
“Over 180,000 drivers and delivery people on Uber live, work and spend in Canada. Our rideshare and delivery operations for Canada are located in our Toronto headquarters with 500 staff,” Ms. Rang said.
Thorben Wieditz, a labour advocate who has long campaigned against companies such as Uber and Airbnb operating in Canada, said that the current Buy Canadian moment poses a challenge for Uber.
“Just like Trump, the company has a long history of intimidating and suing governments attempting to regulate it in the public interest,” he said. “It is time to support local Canadian businesses and undo Uber’s regulatory capture in this country.”