Right now there are 499 taxis in Winnipeg including accessible and handi-cab vans. Applications for 250 additional licences are before the provincial Taxicab Board, which has not issued any significant number of new licences since the mid-1990s.

Now Spring Taxi -- the city's third largest cab company -- and a worker co-op group backed by disgruntled drivers who don't own their own plates have made formal applications for more licences that would increase the total number of taxis in Winnipeg by a full 50 per cent.

Because it is a quasi-judicial body, it seems clear that just about anything goes. Witnesses and participants do not need to swear to tell the truth and arguments made by licence applicants that the demand for taxis far out-strip the supply have been vehemently countered by Unicity and [Duffy]'s.