Item - 2015.EX6.18

The Executive Committee deferred the item indefinitely.

City Council on May 5, 6 and 7, 2015, referred Motion MM6.1 to the Executive Committee.

The City of Toronto should always take steps to protect our employees from physical harm and protect the taxpayers from financial harm.

City employees with work-issued smartphones may be using Uber to go to City meetings.  If those employees are physically harmed in an accident, those employees will hold the City of Toronto taxpayers liable because they were on work time when they were injured.

As we have come to learn, UberX drivers don't have commercial insurance. If they did, once charged by police they would simply have to show their insurance slip to the courts and charges would be dropped.

If employees get hurt, taxpayers will pay. We can't let that happen.

Secondly, it was reported in the news that the City had instructed the Toronto Police to hold off on enforcing the Highway Traffic Act and the Compulsory Insurance Act.  If this is true, Council should send a clear message that it wants provincial laws enforced in our City to protect our residents.

We wouldn't want our own families riding in an unlicensed and uninsured taxi and we certainly don’t want our employees doing that either.

This Motion is the responsible thing for Council to do.