A new kind of entrepreneur could soon be walking the streets of Ottawa searching for a place to locate a business. The business, they’ll say, can attract thousands of dollars in revenue in one night, and draw a clientele that ranges from members of the highest classes of society to shift workers earning an hourly wage. The staff at these establishments would receive the best benefits and compensation in their industry.
On paper, it works. In reality, it sounds too good to be true. Business improvement groups, community organizations and city councillors are all concerned about the effects of this development.
What is causing all this hoopla? Recently, Ottawa Centre MP Mac Harb announced his intention to table another private member’s bill to re-examine the legality of brothels and allow municipalities to establish red-light districts.
Harb and other like-minded politicians say these changes would effectively reduce street prostitution in Canadian urban areas by providing a regulated, safe alternative where sex workers could feel more dignified in their profession.
That reasoning fails to take into account several factors.The first is that most communities do not want these businesses in their backyards. In the eyes of many, prostitution is synonymous with crime. Welcoming brothels is a huge gamble: property values could go down, prospective homebuyers or business people may locate elsewhere. A declared red-light district could also serve as an invitation, rather than a deterrant to violence against sex workers. Whereas the trade was once scattered underground, the law would seek to centralize it.
Even communities that have experienced problems of street prostitution, including some areas in Centretown, oppose the legislation on moral grounds. It is counterproductive to emphasize a crackdown on the sex trade, then turn around and allow it to operate under the law.
Harb points to examples in Europe where red-light districts have worked. He fails to mention most of those districts were not recently developed, but in fact, some are as old as the cities themselves.
In some countries, such as Australia, prostitutes still preferred the independence of the streets to the regulations of brothels.
In Canada, the same thing would likely happen. The drug trade drives a large amount of street prostitution and many prostitutes would not pass the health regulations necessary to work in a legalized brothel. They would continue to work on the streets to earn the money needed to support addictions. Prostitutes who have contracted sexually transmitted diseases would also not be welcomed to work in a regulated environment. They would continue to work underground, as would youth who could not work in a regulated brothel.
The concept would be safer for some, but on the whole, could not encompass every single prostitute. In theory, regulated brothels work. In reality, like the escort legislation before it, it is unwelcomed by most and does not effectively solve the prostitution problem.
— Adam Bramburger