Maria Rantanen

Councillor calls for crackdown on licencing of sex work businesses in Richmond

Richmond city bylaws are known to have the most "stringent" regulations of body-rub establishments in the province.

One Richmond city councillor would like to see massage parlours where sex work is being done be denied business licences and ultimately shut down.

Coun. Kash Heed said he wants city council to have a discussion about these businesses that he claims allow for human trafficking.

"We have an incredible market, unfortunately, in Richmond and a demand for the services of sex-trade workers," Heed told the community safety committee last week.

He had previously brought up the topic the day before at another meeting, saying he planned to address the issue the next day and ask city staff to look into how these businesses could be denied licences.

Heed claimed one can google "massage parlours that we licence here" in Richmond that have scantily clad women advertised on them.

"You know darned well they're not just giving regular massage therapy," Heed said.

Mayor Malcolm Brodie noted the topic could be revisited, however, he also said "extensive steps have been taken to safeguard the employees who work there, and to prevent some of the abuses that have happened elsewhere."

A quick search of the city's business licence database show four businesses with "body rub" licences in Richmond.

Mark Corrado, director of bylaws and licencing with the city, said Richmond is known for having the most "restrictive" licence requirements in the province.

This includes regulating clothing, age, locks, insurance bonds, lighting and criminal record checks.

Heed noted condos and other residential buildings can be seen advertised on the Internet as places where sex work is taking place.

He said he doesn't think "morally and ethically and legally" these businesses with sex trade should be allowed to operate with Richmond business licences.

"We've not got to the point in Canada where as a society we're going to accept prostitution as an industry," Heed said.

Sex work advocacy groups, however, note having massage parlours, or "body rub" establishments, are safer than the alternative, which is women doing sex work alone in their home where they can be subject to violence.

Furthermore, women whose immigration status is precarious won't report abuse or violence to police for fear of deportation.

Instead of defaulting to using police resources to crack down on sex work, Heed said he'd like to tackle it from a "property use" perspective.

In the end, the committee unanimously supported asking city staff to report back at the next meeting about how they could deal with the "onslaught" of underground and "above-ground" body-rub and escort establishments.