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To The Editor:

As a taxpayer, a resident of the City of Moncton and a taxi owner-operator, I am compelled to respond to the front page article which appeared in the Times & Transcript on Monday, July 21 revealing that John Allain, manager of the City of Moncton's Codiac Transit, intends to establish an airport shuttle bus to and from hotels in Metro Moncton.

I attended the Moncton City Council meeting on Monday, July 21 along with several other individuals who have an interest in the taxi industry. Mr. Claude Pierre Gagne, past-president of the Moncton Taxi Committee, made a presentation and brought the airport shuttle bus subject to council's attention.

The mayor and the councillors said that they had just learned of this in the morning newspaper and that it was news to them. Councillor Pierre Boudreau said that this was a slap in the face to the taxi industry and that there was no consultation whatsoever with him, the Taxi Committee or City Council and that this was totally unacceptable.

Moncton's Codiac Transit is a corporation fully owned by the City of Moncton and subsidized by the City of Moncton with its residents' tax money to the tune of $3.8 million this year to run the buses. The city manager has a directive from City Council to hire a manager to run the day-to-day operation of Codiac Transit and that manager's responsibility is to consult with the city management and council before any major changes are undertaken that may affect the public and local businesses, adversely or favourably.

In addition to the $3.8 million in the city budget, Codiac Transit received grants from the provincial and federal governments totalling close to $5 million to buy additional buses to add to their fleet and to improve the service for the tri-communities via bus schedules that meet their needs.

I don't think those grants were provided to compete with the taxi industry and independent charter bus services.

I am all for improving the public bus transit system for the local residents. My advice for John Allain is that he should concentrate and focus on studying his bus schedules to provide the local residents what they really need and stop meddling in the corporate sector where services are already being provided by the private entrepreneurs of the City of Moncton. These include the taxi industry that pays taxi permit fees and taxi drivers' licence fees to the city to operate their business, independent charter buses and hotels that provide their own shuttle service. These entrepreneurs provide jobs for approximately 350 employees and pay their share of taxes.

It is very unfair for a corporation that is fully subsidized by citizen tax dollars to compete against entrepreneurs who work hard building their customer base and keep generating the cash flow to make ends meet. They serve as ambassadors of the city and do a good public relations job.

Furthermore, approximately 75 per cent of airport and hotel customers are travelling from outside the province or country here doing business in the Metro Moncton area and are refunded for their travel expenses by the company they represent.

In my opinion, it is unethical and very unprofessional for the manager of Codiac Transit to have undertaken and pursued some negotiations to establish an airport shuttle bus to and from hotels without consulting first with city management, council and the Moncton Taxi Committee.

I trust that the Moncton City Council will put a stop to this endeavour at the next council meeting and not let the uncomfortable atmosphere in the taxi industry fester too long.

In conclusion for now, I invite the readers' view and opinion on this subject.

Hector Johnson,

Moncton