A new report on Whitehorse taxis indicates there are still serious public safety concerns, especially for women.

The report was compiled by the Yukon Women’s Coalition after years of complaints from women using taxis in the city.

A survey was available for nine days last February, from which the results were compiled.

The report was published on Facebook over the weekend. It generated a good response, with 174 people responding. Of those, 160 identified as women, the report states.

“Respondents described a wide variety of incidents and concerns,” it says.

“The severity of incidents ranged from sub-criminal to criminal in nature. In nearly every category of incident, Indigenous respondents reported proportionally higher rates of violence, harassment, or encounters that made them feel unsafe or targeted.”

Of the 174 respondents, 107 (62 per cent) reported incidents related to harassment, sexualized harassment/assault, threats and/or coercion, the report says.

“Respondents indicated not knowing where or how to report incidents of gender-based violence. Those who were aware of reporting options often did not think what they experienced was severe enough to necessitate a report, or that enforcement responses would be effective.

“Respondents indicated that they didn’t know if cameras in taxis were present or ‘on,’ and taxi driver IDs were reported as being not visible, absent, or reflective of the driver in the taxi.”

Some respondents said they didn’t know how to tell if the cameras were operating in the vehicles.

Any solutions must come with co-operation from the industry, the City of Whitehorse, the Yukon government, First Nations, policing agencies and women’s advocates, the report suggests.

“Safe, affordable, accessible transportation systems are crucial for women to find and maintain employment and to live independently.”

The recommendations are called comprehensive.

They are derived from three sources: current survey responses, recommendations the women’s coalition made to city council in 2017, and recommendations from national GBV initiatives (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls (MMIWG) Calls for Justice and the National Action Plan to End Gender Based Violence).

The recommendations have been organized into four themes:

• improvement of monitoring and enforcement;

• ongoing evaluation of preventative and mitigative measures;

• knowledge translation and mobilization; and

• systemic and structural changes.

‘Taxi safety will not be realized until we listen and appropriately respond to people with lived experiences of violence, harassment, and discrimination in Whitehorse taxis,” the report says.

“The effectiveness of mitigation efforts depend on the sustained monitoring of taxi safety issues and consistent evaluation of whether particular changes result in reductions of taxi-related GBV.

The report recommends increasing random spot checks of taxi drivers to monitor compliance with the city’s taxi bylaw and to increase the capacity for formal reporting of GBV incidents to Bylaw Services and the RCMP.

It also suggests finding methods to “incentivize informal reporting capacities such as driver rating app, and to produce annual reports regarding rates of reported incidents in taxis.”

As well, the report suggests “expanding the mandate of the City of Whitehorse Traffic and Street Sign Committee to include taxi safety or create a Transportation Safety Committee Secure funding for a Transportation Safety Committee that works together to address taxi safety that includes: a City of Whitehorse Traffic and Street Sign Committee representative, an RCMP representative, a Bylaw Services representative, Yukon Women’s Coalition member representatives, creation of and funding for a cross-jurisdictional scan of effective mitigative measures within the transportation system, in particular taxis.”

Representatives from the Yukon Status of Women Council refused to discuss the report with the Star due to a concern the paper doesn’t “moderate its comments both on Facebook and on its website.”

Jonna Reaume, the women’s coaltion’s co-ordinator, said much the same thing in declining to be interviewed.

City of Whitehorse officials were not able to comment on the report.

Myles Dolphin, the city’s manager of communications, said this morning, “I’ve just heard that the Yukon’s Status of Women Council is not appearing as a delegate at city council this evening. They’ve delayed their appearance for two weeks, so that council has time to review the report they produced. They are sharing it with council later this week.

“As a result, council members aren’t in a position to comment on it just yet,” Dolphin said.