Ottawa taxi company urges people to ride local instead of using U.S.-based ride-sharing apps

A Capital taxi and BlueLine taxis await passengers in Ottawa. (CTV News Ottawa)

The head of Ottawa’s Coventry Connections is encouraging commuters to ride local taxis, instead of ordering through U.S. ride-sharing apps, as more people look to buy Canadian due to the threat of a tariff war with the United States.

Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and the Ottawa Board of Trade are urging people to shop local, and councillors directed City of Ottawa staff to look at policies to support local and Canadian products and services, whenever possible, for city items.

Now, the head of the company that operates Blue Line, Capital Taxi and West-Way Taxi says the buy local push should extend to how you get around town, urging people to use taxis instead of Uber and Lyft.

“Support your local businesses and keep the money within your community; that’s the ultimate goal,” Marc-Andre Way, president and CEO of Coventry Connections, told Newstalk 580 CFRA’s the Morning Rush with Bill Carroll.

“We have to remember that Uber and Lyft came across, it’s all predatory pricing, wanting to buy out the business, convinced councillors that they were riding-sharing and it was great for the environment and the community and so on and so forth.”

• Mayor, Ottawa Board of Trade urge people to buy local in response to U.S. tariffs

As Canadians prepare for the possibility of U.S. tariffs, many people have been looking to shop Canadian and locally, with businesses promoting Canadian products in stores. A label that says “product of Canada” is 98 per cent Canadian, while a “made in Canada’ label means 51 per cent of its contents are Canadian.

While Uber is U.S.-based, it does have a headquarters in Toronto. The company has over 500 staff who lead rideshare and delivery for the country, and has over 180,000 drivers and delivery people on the Uber platform in Canada.

“Uber helps millions of Canadians to go anywhere, get anything, and earn their way at the tap of a button,” Uber Canada said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa, adding co-founder Garrett Camp is from Alberta.

“And we’re proud to support those journeys from our Uber Canada headquarters.”

Coventry Connections is starting a campaign to promote its app for ordering taxis. Way says the Canadian Taxi Association is looking to develop an app for use across the country.

“Our app is as sophisticated as theirs,” Way said, referring to apps for Uber and Lyft.

“We can actually really identify the driver because we give you a taxi plate number, we can give you a picture of the driver. You have a complaint; you can call us locally.”

Way adds, “Uber has really given us a kick in the butt. We’ve risen to the occasion; we have the app, we have great drivers, we have the technology, we’re here, we’re quick. There’s really not much that we cannot do now that they were trying to tell people we didn’t do.”

Carroll asked Way about the fact that while Uber and Lyft are U.S.-based, its employees are Canadian.

“I understand that the ride-sharing driver is a Canadian and is from Ottawa and is trying to feed his family at the same time,” Way said. “That is a very valid point. But I think it’s important to look at the other side of it to and see how the big corp. is trying to really take advantage of the situation.”

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Katelyn Wilson