City backs plan to freeze taxi fares

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OTTAWA — Taxi fares in Ottawa will stay frozen for a year, as the city’s taxi drivers requested. City council, which regulates the taxi industry closely, voted to maintain current prices despite a staff recommendation that they should increase 2.5 per cent, in keeping with bus-fare increases. Fares have increased 42 per cent over the last eight years (after a long freeze through the 1990s), while the city estimates the cost of operating a cab has risen only 25 per cent. In a surprise move at a committee meeting considering the matter earlier this month, the head of the taxi drivers’ union, Amrik Singh, said cabbies would prefer a fare freeze out of respect for customers facing economic uncertainty.

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