Toronto taxi owners and operators have banded together to launched a $1.7-billion class action lawsuit against the City of Toronto alleging the city has failed to properly regulate the private transportation industry and caused the value of taxi plates to plummet. They claim five years ago a taxi plate was worth nearly $400,000, but has since decreased to about $30,000, with the arrival of ride -share services. The lawsuit’s $1.7-billion figure represents the total loss in value for roughly 5,500 licensed taxi plates in the city, approximately $310,000 each since the arrival of the ride-share services, according to the statement of claim. The license owners have formed ATOOL – All Taxi Owner and Operators Ltd – and Bob Komsic talks to Andy Reti, a longtime license owner, and a member of ATOOL’s Steering Committee.