For decades in Quebec taxi operators have been shafting their customers — with the connivance and co-operation of governments
Being a free-market columnist in a country like Canada is hard on the soul. You end up, Grinch-like, opposing almost everything. When our lefter-wing parties are in power there’s something new and dumb to object to almost hourly. But even when supposed conservatives take over they often end up mangling what should be bred-in-the-bone conservative principles, so you have to denounce them, too. All the naysaying can shrink a person’s heart.
What’s the goal of policy now? “This new flexibility will allow the laws of the market to open the way for new, more competitive, more focused business models better adapted to the diverse demands of consumers.” My translation doesn’t quite sing, I’m afraid, but to see the phrase “lois du marché” used approvingly in any publication of any Canadian government makes this economist’s shrunken heart beat just a little faster.
Outside the industry, some commentators have been sympathetic toward the taxi drivers; one has gone so far as to say they are being “shafted.” Shafted because, with free entry into the industry, the price of taxi licences that operators bought in good faith for as high as $200,000 each will soon be going to zero.
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