Northern Taxi Owners Urged to Unite

Northern Taxi Owners Urged to Unite

Tuesday, April 15, 2008 at 14:02

A long-time mayor says northern taxi operators won’t convince either level of government to increase rates paid for medical trips until they unite.

Michel Village mayor Ernest Sylvestre has been in the taxi business for 22 years, and also serves as the chair of the Northwest Taxi Association.

Sylvestre says he’s heard directly from government officials who have said that repeated calls from individual taxi owners will never work.

He says members of the association haven’t tried meeting in two years — and when they did, they never had a quorum.

Last week, a northern health region was forced to hire a Beauval taxi service to cover medical trips out of Pinehouse, because the lone taxi operator there says he can no longer afford to make those trips.