Drivers in Calgary join others across the country in ride-share, food delivery strike
CBC
Some Calgary Uber drivers joined others across the country — and overseas — in a strike over wages and working conditions on Wednesday.
Calgary Uber and Lyft driver Ravinder Arora said his pay has dropped nearly 50 per cent since he first started driving five years ago.
"Before, you used to make like $5,000 a month to cover all your house, expenses and everything but now the drivers are not getting more than $3,000," he said.
Arora and others turned off their apps on Wednesday to demonstrate their concerns, hoping that if enough drivers took part, it would send a message to ride-share companies.
In Toronto, dozens of ride-share and food delivery drivers joined the strike, as did drivers across the U.S., in cities such as Chicago, Miami and Austin. In the U.K., delivery drivers said they would turn off their apps and refuse deliveries between 5 p.m. and 10 p.m.
Arora said he wants Uber and Lyft to provide better per-kilometre pay, as well as pay drivers for the kilometres they drive to reach pick-up locations. Right now, he makes no money during that part of his workday.
Right now, Arora said Uber only pays drivers $0.80 per kilometer, an amount that barely allows them to cover expenses such as vehicle leases and fuel.
"For example, if I get a ride, I [might] have to go like four or five kilometres and the ride is only three kilometres," said Arora. "So I get paid for those three kilometres which I've done for the ride, not for the kilometres that I went for the pickup.
Arora said one reason for the drop in wages is due to too many drivers flooding the market. Calgary licensed about a thousand more drivers between 2022 and 2023.
In a statement, Uber said a cap on the number of drivers wouldn't work. It added that the company has been advocating for industry-wide standards that protect flexibility and offer a distinct set of benefits, including a minimum earnings standard of at least 120 per cent of minimum wage during engaged time.
Jackson Khorma has been driving for Uber and Lyft for about three years. He believes Uber has no incentive to put a cap on drivers, even if supply does outweigh demand.
"They're making the same money, their target is not to listen to the driver, they just want every customer to get a ride in one second," said Khorma. "So they just keep hiring."
He said he has to work more hours in the day just to make ends meet.
"There's no life [for] the drivers these days. Whenever I'm leaving my home, my daughter says 'see you tomorrow Dad', because she knows that I'm not gonna come [home] tonight."
For the first time in 111 years, items once belonging to the late Albert Mullins were back in the hands of his family members thanks to the detective work of one Montreal historian.
The year that saw the remains of two First Nations women brought home from a Manitoba landfill and a search get underway for the remains of a third showed how far reconciliation efforts have come — and how far they still need to go, the families say
The RCMP has just released a warning stating there are dangerous, armed individuals on Big Island Cree Nation, near Meadow Lake.
A new land-use plan that Alberta’s government has for the province’s Upper Smoky region is drawing criticism from environmentalists who say they believe it lacks sufficient environmental safeguards, which poses a significant threat to the endangered southern woodland caribou.
Canadian officials made pains to show they were cracking down on illicit drug production in the country in 2025.
A year after the City of Hamilton cancelled its overnight warming bus, it is funding a new all-night warming centre for men at St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church on James Street S.
This year has, without a doubt, been a turbulent one for the Canadian auto industry. Uncertainty dominated the sector — both for auto workers hit with job changes and companies trying to manage a mix of tariffs and changing market conditions.
A woman died at a ski resort in the Canadian Rockies over the weekend, after falling into deep snow.
Two pregnant women who would otherwise be living in a cold tent. A man whose leg wound was so bad it required intravenous medication. Two young people who no longer need to couch surf to get by.
The province has added 12 kilometres of designated trails for all-terrain vehicles in western Prince Edward Island that will connect existing routes in O’Leary and Tignish.
Every year, CBC North publishes hundreds of stories online — breaking news, investigative reporting, political coverage, community features, longform storytelling, and much more.
After a wild year in Canadian politics that began with Justin Trudeau's resignation and ended with Conservative MPs crossing the floor to join Prime Minister Mark Carney's Liberal government, 2026 is shaping up to be just as action-packed.
It became a rallying cry, a cultural touchstone, a marketing strategy and — our favourite — often described in international media as "a hockey term" or "a Canadian phrase."