Like animals? Turn to page 2 in order to get in on the love FRIDAY, APRIL 8, 2016
HUMBERETC.COM
VOLUME 53, ISSUE 10
The Humber Art Show exhibited the best art the school has to offer on Thursday. Established over 30 years ago and sponsored by HSF, it is organized by second-year Public Relations students. This year’s theme was ‘Art Awakens’ and it encouraged students to rouse their inner artist. Submissions were open to all students and ran from March 18-29.
REBECCA PILOZO-MELARA
Turn to page 4 for the winners.
Eyedentity by Moises Frank was a juror’s pick for first place in the painting and drawing category at The Humber Art Show.
City unveils new rules for taxis and Uber Jeremy Appel SENIOR REPORTER
The City of Toronto has released its long-anticipated report on ride-sharing services like Uber, with the stated goal of putting the companies on a level playing field with the taxi industry. Tracey Cook, executive director of the city’s Municipal Licensing and Standards committee, unveiled the proposed changes outlined in the report at City Hall on Thursday morning. The report recommends reducing the regulatory burden on taxis and limousines, while increasing some regulations on Private Transportation Companies (PTC), like Uber and Lyft. “We have new regulations that create a level playing field, provide safe, convenient options to our residents and allow drivers to earn a competitive living,” said Mayor John Tory in a statement.
Among the report’s key recommendations are: forbidding PTCs from picking up fares off the street, reduction of cab drivers’ licensing and training fees, and requiring criminal background checks for Uber drivers. These background checks will be sent to Uber, while taxi companies must send theirs directly to the city. “The people want choice and I think this provides a reasonably level playing field,” Coun. John Campbell (Ward 4, Etobicoke Centre) told reporters outside the announcement. “Our job as a city is to offer some semblance of order and regulation,” he added. “That’s what this report does.” Opponents said these new regulations merely codify and legitimize the two different sets of rules cabbies and Uber drivers have to abide by. Coun. Janet Davis (Ward 31, Beaches-East York), for instance, called the report a “complete capitulation” to the
PTCs, which she characterized as “shocking.” “Uber’s arrogance and complete disregard for city regulations to date has been successful,” she said. “Instead of leveling the playing field, we’ve dropped the floor,” Davis said. “It’s a blueprint for deregulation and self-regulation that does not protect the interests of the public and it does not protect the interests of the drivers,” she added. “The city has abandoned its role in this proposed regulation.” Staunch Uber critic Coun. Jim Karygiannis (Ward 39, Scarborough-Agincourt), echoed Davis’s sentiment. “We are allowing Uber to get away with murder; no licensing, no marking, no plates — nothing,” he said, suggesting the regulations don’t go nearly far enough in reining in Uber. Mohammed Mirza, president of the Toronto-based Bangladeshi Taxi Drivers Association, insisted that the
REUTERS/KAI PFAFFENBACH
An illustration picture from 2014 shows the logo of car-sharing service app Uber on a smartphone next to picture of an official taxi sign in Frankfurt. Uber’s presence is now global.
services offered by Uber and taxicabs are virtually identical and should thus be placed under the same regulations. “Our drivers are completely regulated by the current framework, but the Uber system has nothing in terms of regulation,” Mirza said. “They say it’s ride-sharing. It’s not,” he added. “They pick up customers
from A and drop them off at B,” which is precisely what cabbies do. “This is not the even and level playing field that we were hoping for,” said Toronto Taxi Alliance spokesperson Sam Moini, who predicted the regulations will contribute to the taxi industry’s extinction. “Drivers won’t be able to make a decent living.”
$400,000 to rebrand Humber Students’ Federation HSF’s budget of over $10-million for year ended is released Corey Brehaut SENIOR REPORTER
The Humber Students’ Federation released its budget of over $10-million for 2015-16 at the Annual General Meeting Mar. 30. The total HSF revenue this past year was $10,313,898 and its total expenses were $10,713,898. This leaves a deficit of exactly $400,000. HSF’s revenue almost entirely comes from $5,183,648 in student activity fees and $4,805,250 in health and dental fees. The federation’s largest expenditure by far is services at $5,862,000. This includes part-time staff salaries, student services, health and dental premiums and bursaries. In a distant second is the administration budget at $1,789,898. This is made of full and part-time staff expenses, full-time salaries, office supplies and infrastructure. New this year is a $400,000 expense for HSF’s rebranding due to its consolidation with University of Guelph-Humber’s student union, which is equal to the budget’s entire deficit. “We didn’t want to take $400,000 from our current operating budget and try to do it for our rebranding,” HSF president Ahmed Tahir told Humber Et Cetera in an interview during the campaign. He said this is so that students still get to keep all of their services rather than cut them in one year or another. “We don’t think its fair to students. So what we decided was to kind of use some of our unrestricted assets for rebranding.