A Toronto City Councillor Thinks UberX Passengers Can Be Fined $20,000

A Toronto city councillor is warning visitors to the Pan Am Games that UberX passengers can be fined for up to $20,000.

If you'll remember, the city has essentially already warned people to avoid the Games—the multibillion dollar international sporting event that earned a New York Times writeup for nobody giving a shit about it—with ominous ads that basically scream, "Hey! Transit is going to be hell!"

Councilor Jim Karygiannis, a vocal critic of Uber who accepted more than $7,000 in donations from people with ties to the taxi industry last year, said in a statement today that passengers using "bandit taxi cabs" to get around traffic during the Games can face stiff fines under the Highway Traffic Act. The Act states that "no person shall arrange or offer to arrange" for a passenger to be driven for money by a non-commercial vehicle.

According to Karygiannis, a court ruling that saw the City of Toronto lose its bid to kick Uber out for good last week leaves passengers on the hook for arranging a ride as defined by the Act. "I have spoken to folks that have legal training, I've been a member of parliament for 26 years myself, and it's not very hard to put one and one together," Karygiannis said.

Karygiannis's grim warning comes with an important caveat: the police are actually refusing to enforce the Act as it applies to UberX drivers. According to Mark Pugash, a spokesperson for the Toronto Police Service, a court decision in June established that UberX rides do not meet the Act's criteria for "commercial motor vehicles" operating without a licence.

"The courts have made it clear that the Highway Traffic Act is not the way to go," Pugash said. "I think most people agree that it is in an issue for the city in terms of the way in which they wish to license."

According to Bob Nichols, a representative of the Ontario Ministry of Transportation, whether the Highway Traffic Act applies to drivers or passengers will be up to police. "A police officer, upon examining the circumstances of each incident, will determine whether a motorist, in their view, is in contravention of a given statute and which charge is most appropriate under the circumstances," Nichols wrote in an email.

Watch more from Motherboard: Smart Highway

Seventy-two UberX drivers are currently facing charges that could result in fees ranging from $300-500 for violating city bylaws that require drivers to license their vehicles. However, Pugash said, these charges are different because they relate to city bylaws, not the Highway Traffic Act. Uber committed to paying drivers' fees for bylaw infractions in an email sent to drivers last week.

According to Susie Heath, a spokesperson for Uber Canada, "Councillor Karygiannis's inaccurate comments this morning are clearly intended to invoke fear and come at a time when Toronto is welcoming the world to our great city." In addition, Uber maintains that the section of the Highway Traffic Act Karygiannis is pointing to is meant to capture drivers, if anyone, not passengers.

Uber introduced UberPOOL, a service that allows passengers to ride together and split the fare, to Toronto on Monday. The trial is set to run from July 13th to the 26th, a timeline that coincides with the Pan Am Games.

Amid all this ongoing Uber drama in Toronto, the biggest takeaway is probably that the only thing getting Torontonians riled up during the Pan Am Games—for better or for worse—is still transit.