It should be up to the people to decide on ridesharing in the province, the British Columbia Conservative Party says.

The BC Conservative Party originally called for private for-profit ridesharing in October 2017, along with other forward-looking legislation for 21st century technological advances, like autonomous vehicles.

The Party supports ridesharing in B.C., and notes that the NDP promised to table ridesharing legislation by the end of 2017. The party also suggested an immediate pilot project.

鈥淩idesharing legislation is long overdue in B.C.,鈥� said interim party leader Scott Anderson. 鈥淚t鈥檚 time to let people decide if they will support this innovation in transportation.鈥�

Anderson said that instead of interfering with entrepreneurial innovation, the provincial government should step out of the way. He said the province doesn鈥檛 need another study but need to let people decide by voting with their wallets.

鈥淥bviously, we need to set minimal standards for ridesharing,鈥� Anderson said, 鈥渂ut those standards should apply across the board to both rideshares and taxis.鈥�

Anderson rejects the BC Liberal plan of a taxpayer-funded app to prop up existing taxi companies, and accuses the NDP of dithering in the face of change. He believes the growth of ridesharing is inevitable regardless of any government efforts to throw roadblocks in front of ridesharing entrepreneurs, but acknowledges that we will only find out by trial and error.

鈥淚f ridesharing is an idea that will work, let鈥檚 find out by letting folks choose between ridesharing and taxis. If it is an idea that can flourish in competition with taxis, then so be it. But we won鈥檛 know the answer to that unless we allow ridesharing a fair chance to compete,鈥� Anderson said.

鈥淩idesharing is already growing across Canada, whether the government or the taxi companies like it or not. The Liberals did nothing, and the NDP is only slowly staggering toward real change.鈥�

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