Edmonton City Hall

News from the Edmonton Sun

Helen Nolan let out a quiet cheer at City Hall Wednesday afternoon after a council committee requested that administration explore bylaw amendments to crack down on illicit massage parlours.

“I think this is excellent,” said the executive director of the 124 Street and area business revitalization initiative. “We spent 13 years making this a better place and we have had trouble with these happy-hand parlours.”

Nolan said there have been three or four problem parlours in her area, some located near daycare centres and neighbourhoods with young children. She’s heard complaints from residents about prostitutes bartering with their clients in the early hours of the morning.

“I’m sick of this. I want regulations changed.”

A report that went before committee Wednesday said zoning changes that put stricter regulations on where such massage parlours could be located would be a “major challenge” to implement.

The difficulty lies in distinguishing between businesses that provided therapeutic or health-related massages and those that provided services of a “sexual nature.”

But Coun. Ben Henderson, who brought the issue to council, said he wants to see administration do as much as they can to come up with “cleaner” regulations or bylaws around illicit massage parlours.

“I was tired of going into communities, lining up six of our administration including police, and each saying we don’t have the mechanisms to deal with the kind of things you’re asking,” he said.

“It’s a scary topic but we just needed to ask some questions.”

The solution could be through amended zoning bylaws, massage parlour bylaws, location restrictions, or “any number of tools,” said Henderson, though he cautioned against introducing rules or bylaws that would drive sex trade workers underground or onto the streets.

“If we are going to begrudgingly say we’re not going to drive it underground and create space for this so it is safe for those who are working there, we need to ask another set of questions of how it fits and what it is,” he said.

“We need to make sure we don’t use such clumsy tools that the people doing therapeutic massage or medical massage are not caught in the crossfire.”

A report is due back to the committee before the end of the year.

Not sure how this will effect things.