Two ride-hailing companies that were looking to operate in Kamloops have been denied applications.

The independent Passenger Transportation Board has today announced Kater and Re-Ryde have been denied a license in Region 4 – which includes Kamloops, the Okanagan, Kootenay and Cariboo.

Transport Minister Claire Trevena was asked about Kater in particular.

“Reading the decision by the board, they clearly had, their business plan was not what the board thought would be adequate to provide a service for people in British Columbia, and that its revenue projections were not adequate. And on that decision, the board decided they weren’t going to be going ahead,” Trevena told reporters on a conference call.

“Clearly the board read the application and decided that is was not suitable. I leave it up to the board for why the made decisions and how they made decisions. We still have another more than 20 still to go, so I think there’s still going to be some surprises as we see the coming days come out.”

Kater was denied a license in five different regions. Re-Ryde was looking for a license in three different regions.

Yellow Cabs, based in Kamloops, wrote submissions in both ride hailing applications, and Kami Cabs wrote a submission in Kater’s application. The details of those submissions haven’t been provided, and a spokesperson for PTB declined to comment when asked by NL News.

The denial for Kater and Re-Ryde comes the same day that Uber and Lyft were approved for licenses in Region 1, which includes Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and Whistler.

Both Uber and Lyft have claimed the rules in B.C. are too onerous to be able to provide service in a smaller urban area like Kamloops.