Struggling cab companies consider leaving Yellowknife Airport over parking fees

A pair of cab companies say they can't keep paying fees for parking stands at the Yellowknife Airport — and they might stop picking up incoming travellers as a result. 

Mohamad Ali, vice president of Aurora Taxi, said the city's three cab companies each pay $1,250 a month for three prime spots right outside the arrival gates. 

The fee had been temporarily waived to provide relief from the COVID-19 pandemic, he explained, but when it was reinstated back in January companies were still facing all the same challenges. 

"We've never asked anyone to waive anything before because we were doing well, but now, things have changed," he said, noting passenger traffic at the airport has dropped from between 150 to 200 people a day to about 20 or 25.

"We're not making enough these days," said Ali.

Aurora Taxi and City Cab are calling on the territorial government to waive the parking stand fee again — to help them stay afloat. 

Frame Lake MLA Kevin O'Reilly raised the issue at the Legislative Assembly on May 28.

He called on Diane Archie, the minister of Infrastructure, to give the industry "the relief it needs" or at least prorate the fee "until we see the return of carriers and revival of passenger numbers to pre-pandemic levels." 

In response, Archie said the airport is seeing an increase in passenger and aircraft traffic compared to last year, but that she would review the licensing fees and respond within two weeks. 

In an emailed statement to CBC News on Tuesday, Archie said she would not waive the fee.

"The Yellowknife Airport (YZF) has been experiencing increased air passenger traffic and this trend is expected to continue," she said, while also noting the recently reduced isolation requirements.

"Air Canada has announced they will be returning to service on June 30, 2021, with three flights a week," she added.

CBC News has reached out Yellowknife's third cab company, Yellowknife Cab, for comment. The business was not available for an interview before publication time.

Cabs as public service

Though the companies pay for the parking stands, the cost is downloaded to individual drivers through weekly fees they pay to the company they drive for.

Those fees range from between $200 to $300 a week and are spent on things like equipment and the dispatch service, said Ali. 

It's a tough pill to swallow for two businesses who are both reporting their income has been cut in half since the pandemic began.

"We can't force the drivers to pay money that they do not have," said Kareem Yalahow, vice president of City Cab.

"Airports need our service … they need us to pick up the customers. The customers are not going to walk. They want us to drive people there. It would be nice if we work together." 

Yalahow said many drivers are now working 16 hour days, sometimes seven days a week, to make ends meet. 

"It's really, really hard. It's much harder than it used to be." 

City Cab used to have as many as 90 vehicles on the road before the pandemic, he said. Now, they're down to about 60. Aurora Taxi on the other hand has gone from about 50 cars to 35. 

Ali said Aurora Taxi hasn't paid the parking stand fee since the start of the year.

"Why can't we meet somewhere halfway instead of paying the full fee, why can't they make it like 50 per cent?" he asked. "And when things get better we'll be more than willing to pay what we used to pay."