Noah Laybolt

Ban on massage parlours should end, says St. John's councillor

Maggie Burton plans to introduce a motion to lift a moratorium put in place 4 years ago

Coun. Maggie Burton is proposing an end to the moratorium on new massage parlour applications. (Jeremy Eaton/CBC)

A St. John's city councillor plans to introduce a motion to lift a moratorium on new massage parlours.

"After four years I don't think it really counts as a temporary moratorium anymore. It's time to move on," said Coun. Maggie Burton after Monday's city council meeting.

The moratorium was put in place four years ago when new development regulations were under review. Those regulations have yet to receive approval on the provincial level, leaving the state of massage parlour business applications in limbo.

The ban was initially put in place to "minimize disruption in residential areas from concerns in the downtown," according to Burton, who said residents' concerns are important.

If the moratorium is lifted, new applications will be considered as long as they follow site-specific stipulations, such as being a certain distance from a residential unit.

"Our goal, of course, is to protect the integrity of our residential areas [while] at the same time recognizing a worker's right to a work environment."

Advocacy groups are split on Burton's planned motion.

Lack of input from Thrive

Angela Crockwell, executive director of advocacy and outreach group Thrive, said she's concerned about a lack of safety regulations for the establishments.

"I think just handing out licences to open new massage parlors does nothing to increase safety for people," said Crockwell, who said her group wasn't consulted.

Angela Crockwell, the executive of director of Thrive, isn't a fan of the motion to lift the moratorium.

"Some women will say, 'I feel safer inside.' [But] there are people who will say, 'I've totally felt unsafe because there was no regulation. There was nobody monitoring. There was lots of drug use. There are people who ask you to do stuff inside that you never would get asked to do.'"

Crockwell also says massage parlours tend to employ underage girls.

"There's a huge demand for underage people. Who's responsible to monitor that?" she said.

"I don't think just saying 'here's a licence' is doing anything to make sure we're protecting the most vulnerable women, and particularly underage girls, in our city."

But it's not within city council's capacity to enforce regulations to protect sex workers employed at the businesses, says Burton.

"We just addressed the jurisdictional issues around where you can put a business, and that's the extent of our authority there," she said.

"We have no jurisdictional ability in the city of St. John's to regulate the business operations of anybody, really."

SHOP agrees with lifting moratorium

But Heather Jarvis, the program co-ordinator of the Safe Harbour Outreach Project, which advocates for sex workers, supports lifting the moratorium — and has since it was introduced four years ago.

Heather Jarvis says SHOP has been involved with the city regarding consultations about the massage parlour moratorium. (Paula Gale/CBC)

"What we know at SHOP is, after connecting with sex workers who work in our city for years, they overwhelmingly are in favour of lifting this ban and ending the moratorium," she said, adding the group has had consultations with city staff and councillors.

"This moratorium actually acts to restrict legal and regulated options for sex workers to work indoors, and instead increases unregulated situations that push sex workers further underground into isolation and into more vulnerability."

She said ending the moratorium is a first step toward increasing safety and human rights for people who work in the industry.

"That next step forward is about making sure that any regulation or legal change involves meaningful and ongoing consultation with sex workers," said Jarvis, who said lifting the ban would be a "good news story."

"Making sure that people have more regulated places to work communally is not a bad decision."