The Halifax Town Clock is seen from inside an Uber rideshare on Thursday.Darren Calabrese/The Globe and Mail
Uber Technologies Inc. UBER-N is battling the city of Halifax over proposed rules that would give the municipality full control over the licensing of rideshare drivers – a process that is currently run by the ride-hailing giant.
In most parts of the country where rideshare companies such as Uber Technologies Inc., Lyft Inc. and Hopp operate, the companies issue licences to prospective drivers, administering their own background checks. This stands in contrast to how taxi drivers are licensed in most parts of Canada, where they have to undergo a specific training program that is administered by the city in which they operate, and background checks are conducted by the city, which ultimately issues a licence.
“This started out as a safety issue. We’d like more transparency around the driver’s record and safety history,” said Andy Fillmore, the mayor of Halifax, in an interview with The Globe and Mail.
The tussle between Uber and Halifax is the latest in a series of clashes between the San Francisco-based company and Canadian jurisdictions over how Uber drivers are onboarded, and whether rideshare companies are taking sufficient precautions to ensure the safety of riders.
A December report from the Halifax Regional Municipality recommended that the city take back control of licensing rideshare drivers, requiring them to undergo city-run background checks, complete an online course and an English-language proficiency test.
Waabi launching robotaxi fleet with Uber after raising US$750-million
The report, which relied primarily on the city’s surveys of taxi and rideshare drivers, noted certain safety issues, including instances of multiple rideshare drivers using the same vehicle. The report, however, relied on anecdotes, and did not provide specific data that illustrated how extensive the passenger safety problem is when using rideshare vehicles.
“We have access to their data, and we can audit their data,” Mr. Fillmore said, referring to the company’s background checks. “I’m not suggesting the government play a heavy hand in regulating rideshare companies, but I think we need to conduct audits more frequently on who gets onboarded as drivers.”
There is scant evidence across the country to suggest that it is more unsafe to ride in an Uber or Lyft car than a taxi. A City of Toronto report published in 2024 found that between 2020 and 2023, 666 rideshare vehicles were involved in collisions resulting in minor, major and fatal injuries – a rate of 3.8 vehicle collisions per 10 million kilometres travelled. For non-rideshare vehicles, that rate was 3.2. The report noted that the estimates were highly variable and fluctuated annually.
Last December, The New York Times published an extensive investigation showing that Uber’s background checks approved drivers with many types of criminal convictions, including sexual violence, and only removed them from the app after passengers accused drivers of sexual assault.
In a statement to The Globe, Uber Canada spokesperson Keerthana Rang said that complex regulations “unintentionally slow access to flexible earning opportunities for drivers and reliable transportation for riders, without delivering meaningful safety improvements.”
The rules proposed by Halifax would require rideshare drivers to pay $135 to complete city-run training, and a $100 renewal fee every two years.
This month, Uber launched a campaign decrying the new licensing proposals, sending out bulletins to drivers to write or e-mail their local councillors protesting the proposed rules. Ms. Rang said that last weekend more than 250 drivers shared their concerns with councillors.
In a meeting on Jan. 27, the Halifax Regional Municipality voted in favour of studying the licensing process further, instead of adopting the proposed new rules.
Cities across North America have been trying to wrest back control over the licensing process for many reasons that go beyond safety, but more often than not are met with aggressive pushback from rideshare companies, particularly Uber.
In 2024, the City of Toronto attempted to impose a cap on the number of licences issued by companies to drivers, effectively limiting the number of rideshare vehicles on the road. That proposal was ultimately shelved indefinitely, after rideshare companies said it would lead to poorer service for customers.
“Companies like Uber have very effectively become their own regulators,” said Vass Bednar, a tech policy researcher and managing director of The Canadian SHIELD Institute, a new Toronto-based public policy think tank. Ms. Bednar said the Toronto licensing episode demonstrated that cities have little sway over how rideshare companies operate, and simply just trust that the companies themselves enforce norms set by a state.
Uber and Lyft have a high churn rate of drivers, and need to onboard new drivers quickly to keep wait times low for customers. They argue that any kind of regulatory process that slows down the ability of a driver to start working for a rideshare service (such as undergoing a city-run training course, or waiting until there are open spots because of a city-imposed cap), will ultimately affect customer service.
But labour advocates have long argued for cities to issue a single licence to a driver that allows them to operate on any platform. This will allow them to move from one rideshare company to another more easily instead of being locked into a single app, and so boosting wage competition. (Currently, drivers who work on three different apps have to onboard three times, going through three different background checks, and depending on the app, paying multiple licence fees).
“Direct licensing by a City would reduce the stranglehold Uber has on drivers and the market, which is why Uber is opposing it in Halifax,” said Thorben Wieditz, director of the advocacy group Ridefair TO.
Hopp, a rideshare app owned by Estonian company Bolt, which began operating in Canada in February, 2025, has also been opposed to rideshare companies issuing their own licences to drivers. In a July, 2024, letter sent to the City of Toronto, the company advocated for a driver licensing system that was run by the City, saying that cities would be able to make quick policy changes based on direct feedback from drivers and passengers, and ensure fair competition is maintained between incumbents and new entrants.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Thorben Wieditz is former director of Ridefair. He remains the director of Ridefair. (Feb. 2, 2026) This article was updated to clarify that Uber administers its own background checks, which are completed by police.