The Supreme Court judge ordered the Government of Quebec to pay 143 million dollars to taxi drivers as compensation for its decision to revoke their permits nearly five years ago.

According to the ruling issued on Friday, the judge ruled that the province illegally seized taxi licenses without fair compensation, paving the way for Uber to enter the market.

With interest, the compensation ordered by Judge Silvana Conti will amount to approximately 219 million dollars.

Bruce W. Johnston, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs who filed the class action in 2016, said, "It's a historic victory but we were asking for more money."

The Montreal-based lawyer had hoped to secure 308 million dollars in addition to the interest, but still described Friday's ruling as "a very significant victory."

"We are reviewing the ruling to see if there are grounds for an appeal, but it remains that there will be a very significant difference in the lives of the thousands of taxi permit holders who have worked their whole lives to accumulate the capital assets they had and were deprived of them by a government decision," he said in an interview.

Geneviève Tremblay, spokesperson for the Quebec Minister of Transport, said her office will review the ruling before commenting on it.

The compensation is granted to all taxi drivers who first obtained a driver's license in Quebec before October 28, 2013, the date when Uber's fleet of drivers took to the streets in the province.

When Quebec abolished the permit system in October 2019, it rendered the existing permits worthless when some were valued at up to 200,000 dollars. At that time, the government granted permit holders a total of 800 million dollars in compensation, but Johnston argued in court that this figure was far below the market value of the permits prior to Uber's arrival, which he estimated at around 1.2 billion dollars.

With the ruling issued, each driver can expect to receive about 50,000 or 60,000 dollars.

Both sides have 30 days to decide whether they want to appeal the decision or not.