The City of Humboldt will follow the lead of Saskatoon and Regina when it comes to regulating ride-sharing services, Mayor Rob Muench says.

“They currently regulate their taxi services with licensing and that type of thing a lot more stringently than other cities. So we’re probably going to sit back and see how they handle it and maybe take some ideas from them and scale them down to our local situation.”

The provincial government last week introduced legislation allowing ride-sharing companies to operate in Saskatchewan. A vehicle must be registered under Class PT with a minimum of $1 million in liability insurance.

Unlike the province’s two largest cities, Humboldt does not have any restrictions on taxi companies or ride-sharing drivers beyond having a business license and following provincial regulations.

The potential arrival of companies such as Uber or Lyft has been discussed in Muench’s meetings with other mayors, he said.

Neither service is currently available in Humboldt.

“We know these types of ride-sharing programs are very popular through many cities in the world and we will be looking at it with the other cities in the province just to make sure that our laws and bylaws are fair and make it easy for these companies to come in.”

Muench wants to ensure a level playing field with existing taxi services in Humboldt.

He also believes ride-sharing could help curb drunk driving.

“Anytime we can add to the convenience of people that may be out and about drinking and giving them another option to prevent them from drinking and driving, I think is a good thing.”