Your taxi service here is still a wild ride, eh?
Bonjour from the North — three cities, one corridor, and the stories that don't make it south of Barrie. You know, you think with all the talk about public safety, about transparency, about making things work smooth in our city, some stuff would just *get done*, no? Especially when the police are asking for it. But here in Sault Ste. Marie, the idea of just shifting who looks after the taxi bylaws, from the Sault Ste. Marie Police Service to the City itself, it's just stuck. Flat out.
### Why is this such a mess?
The police, they've been trying to get the city to take over the taxi bylaw oversight since at least 2025. Yeah, 2025. That's not a typo. So, for a year now, they've been trying to offload this. You'd think the City of Sault Ste. Marie, the folks at City Hall down by the waterfront, would be eager to streamline operations, no? But instead, it's like a car stuck in neutral on the International Bridge, just idling. And while it's idling, it means a few things for anyone living, working, or visiting us here in the Sault:
* **Police Resources Tied Up:** Our Sault Ste. Marie Police Service officers, who should be out dealing with more serious stuff, are still spending time on things like taxi licensing and complaints. This takes away from their primary duties, *tabarnak*. * **Consistency is Hard:** When you have two different bodies trying to figure out who's doing what, it creates confusion. For the drivers, for the companies, and for us, the people trying to get a ride home from the Essar Centre after a Greyhounds game. * **"Only in the Sault" Feeling:** This kind of bureaucratic slow-down, it makes you scratch your head. It’s like, we can send steel all over North America from Algoma Steel, but we can't figure out who regulates the cabs that pick up the workers? Come on.
It really grinds my gears, this kind of thing. It's not about big policy, it's about the little gears that keep a city like ours running day-to-day. We need to get this sorted so our police can focus on what they do best, and so when you call for a cab in the Churchill Plaza or over near the St. Marys Rapids, you know who's keeping an eye on things. It's about making life a little less complicated in a place that's already got its own challenges.
Marc-André Desjardins, Sault Ste. Marie, signing off.
My buddies on the morning show dive into stuff like this every day – get the full story at mornings.live.