It’s a debate Ontario municipalities have been facing down for years, particularly in large urban centres like Toronto – what to do with e-bikes and e-scooters showing up on sidewalks, in bike lanes and on the roads, particularly as the mode of transportation becomes more popular.

That debate showed up in Mississauga on Wednesday as Coun. Dipika Damerla brought forth a motion, calling on the Ford government to regulate e-scooters and e-bikes like other motorized vehicles, specifically to look at licensing and registration.

“It’s really the wild west when it comes to bikes and scooters, and it’s time we started looking at a regulatory framework,” said Damerla, who says she’s all for e-mobility. But she has safety concerns when it comes to the mode of transportation.

While Damerla’s motion garnered the support of only one other councillor, she says it has sparked a very much-needed conversation. Coun. Stephen Dasko says he might be open to more provincial regulation in the future, but the city needs to do more work figuring out the specifics on what it wants to ask for.

“If her ask is going to the province and asking them to let us regulate e-bikes, and scooters, we need to know what we’re asking for, because if they say yes, and then ask us what we want that licensing to look like, we don’t have the background work done to answer those questions,” he says.

Coun. Alvin Tedjo says he’s not ready to create barriers for equipment that might have limits on where it can go, or how fast, but says he may be open to supporting more intervention from other levels of government that don’t have those built-in guardrails like the municipally-run network does, noting some e-bikes and scooters are capable of going upwards of 50 or 60 km/h.

“What the government needs to do, and this is both the federal government and the provincial government, who can create new regulations and new definitions – they need to define those vehicles as motor vehicles, like a motorcycle or something like that,” he says.

Disability rights advocate David Lepofsky says he’s all for the province becoming more involved, saying groups like his have deep concerns.

“They come at you out of nowhere, sighted people may not see them coming, blind people and sighted people can’t hear them coming because they are a silent menace, they race at all sorts of speeds, they’re ridden on the sidewalks, even when it’s prohibited, and law enforcement is asleep,” he says.

It’s worth noting that none of the councillors CityNews spoke with did not support an outright ban on e-bikes and e-scooters, acknowledging their popularity among young people.