Cab drivers pan plan to help disabled get a ride

Ottawa taxi driversare unhappy with a proposed bylaw change that would make all the city's new cabs wheelchair accessible within six years.

The change is among 34 amendments to thetaxi bylawcity council will consideron Wednesday.

It would requireall new cabs be accessible vans by 2013, with the goal of making all taxis accessible by 2020.

Taxi driver Kassem Salhani said that will be expensive.

"They want us to have accessible vehicles and they want us to pay for the vehicles," he said. "You know, we're not rich. We're not rich people."

Susan Jones, head of bylaw services with the city, said provincial legislation will require all taxis to be wheelchair accessible by 2025, and the city is trying to beat that deadline.

But Yusef Al Mezel, head of the union representing Ottawa taxi drivers, said that provincial legislation won't force all cabs to be accessible.

"They're looking for a good number of accessible cabs to be on demand all the time to service the disabled community," said Mezel.

He agreedaccessible cabs haven't always been available for the people who need them, but said he doesn't think asking drivers to spend thousands of dollars replacing their cars is the answer.

On a visit to Ottawa last December, Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan, who uses a wheelchair, complained about the lack of accessible cabs, saying he waited so longfor a taxihe had to cancelanactivity.