Prince Edward County Council, in a reversal of a previous decision, has approved a continued subsidy for Uride.
During Wednesday’s council meeting, councillors discussed for the second time a proposal to extend a wage subsidy to the ride hailing service. The $30,000 subsidy is reduced from previous amounts offered to the company, and is used to help pay their drivers a living wage within the county.
Since beginning operations in Prince Edward County, Uride has received $50,000 a year for two years in wage subsidy from the municipal government.
Councillor Bill Roberts was in favour of continuing the wage subsidy, saying that they should be encouraging new potential solutions to the transportation challenges the municipality faces.
“We subsidize private sector developers’ incomes when we want to boost construction builds,” said Councillor Roberts. “We subsidize new doctors’ incomes because we’ve identified a health care crisis.”
Councillor Phil St-Jean was still against continuing the subsidy when only one company benefits.
“We were solely subsidizing one, one company,” said Councillor St-Jean. “Sadly to the detriment of an existing business model.”
During discussion of the motion, an amendment was made to a section proposing establishing a grant program for transportation companies in Prince Edward County. Under the amendment, companies providing transportation solutions in the county would be eligible for a grant of up to $45,000. The program would be funded by the Municipal Accommodations Tax.
The motion was passed as amended.
CORRECTION: A previous version of the article quoted Councillor David Harrison with being in favour of continuing the wage subsidy when the quote was actually attributed to Councillor Bill Roberts. Quinte News apologizes for this error.
