Former Montreal taxi permit-owner denied share of compensation
Payout supposed to be proportionally divided if there's more than one owner
When the Quebec government announced it would be offering financial compensation to taxi drivers whose permit values have plummeted since the advent of the ride-hailing app Uber, Louis Westernoff thought he'd recoup some of the money he'd lost.
"I was losing money every year," he said.
When the value of permits plunged, Westernoff decided it was no longer worth it.
"Times are tough, and drivers aren't making what they are supposed to."
"I've been in this business since I was a small child," said Westernoff. He inherited the company from his father, but the cost of repairs and maintenance got to be too much, since he didn't own a garage.
He sold the company, which included five taxi permits, in January 2016.
Last August, the Liberal government set aside $250 million to compensate taxi drivers for the loss of value of their permits, for the period between April 1, 2014 and March 27, 2018.
That compensation package is apart from another $250 million in compensation that's included in the Coalition Avenir Québec government's plan to deregulate the taxi industry, announced last week.
Although Westernoff filed the form for the first round of compensation, he hasn't seen a penny.
The current owner of the company received the payout, he said.
"He basically walked away with a really low rate."
"The government's practically giving him almost the full amount of what I sold it for," said Westernoff. "So he's basically walking away with the permits practically for free."
Mila Roy, a spokesperson for Transports Québec, said she couldn't comment on specific cases. However, if a permit was owned by more than one person during the time frame in question, the amount of compensation is to be proportionally divided among the different owners.
Westernoff said when he contacted Revenu Québec to find out where his money was, he was told simply that the company had been paid.
'I'm entitled to something'
Under the terms of the compensation package offered by the former Liberal government, taxi permit owners in Montreal are entitled to a maximum of $46,700 per permit.
"I know I'm entitled to something," Westernoff said.
Based on the 25 months that he owned his company after April 1, 2014, he should have been entitled to as much as $121,614 for the five permits.
"The government is not helping me figure this out," he said.
"There's a glitch somewhere in their system, and they can't seem to get past it."
George Boussios, the president of Taxi Champlain and spokesperson for Taxi Grand Montreal, confirmed if there are multiple owners of a taxi permit during that period, all should be granted compensation.
"If he sold [the permits] during that period, he's 100 per cent entitled to compensation, even if he had it for one day, he's going to get compensation for that one day," said Boussios.
"There's an error somewhere, and I think it's an injustice what they are doing to him," said Boussios. "He's lost five permits without getting any compensation."
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With files from Sarah Leavitt