Body rub issue brings strong views to council

City’s plan for licensing fails to sway many advocates of a ban

The ongoing “regulation versus ban” debate over Regina’s massage parlours, or “body rub establishments” as the city prefers to call them, will continue Monday night at a special city council meeting.

Thirteen delegations are scheduled to speak to councillors and administration, many of whom continue calls for an outright ban.

In her submission to be presented to city council on Monday, Jane Gattinger expressed “grave concerns” over city administration’s recommendations to impose a licensing system on the city’s approximately 21 massage parlours.

“This is a modern day form of slavery that we are looking at today,” she wrote. “Many a soldier gave their lives so that we can all enjoy freedoms. Let’s not willingly give that away.”

She calls on the city to be heroes and make Regina safe and proud again.

Gattinger is not the only one calling for an outright ban. During public consultations hosted by the city, most preferred a ban, and that preference was echoed again and again at an executive committee meeting in June.

Many of those concerned residents have signed up to speak again at Monday night’s meeting, including Ed Smith, whose 18-year-old daughter was found murdered in Victoria, B.C. in 1990 after being recruited into the sex trade.

“We need to show our women and girls that we will do everything we can to protect them,” he wrote in his latest submission. “If we think that regulations, licensing and bylaws will protect them, we are deceiving ourselves.”

But according to the city, while most preferred an outright ban during public consultations, they agreed it was not likely to have a positive impact on the safety of workers in the industry. For some, regulation versus banning seems to be a “lesser of two evils” kind of choice.

“Our agency undertook research and consulted together as staff to determine the best possible response to the issue before City Council,” says a submission from the Regina Sexual Assault Centre (RSAC).

“It is our opinion that neither choice, that of banning or regulating body rub parlours, are satisfactory options.”

RSAC says that while they are “not here to support the regulation of body rub parlous” nor to have them banned, they are interested in the protection of employees and the rest of the community.

Given the choice, RSAC says it supports regulation with some conditions: criminal record checks and background checks for business owners, funders and manages; strong lines of communication with workers including collaboration between community agencies and police and background checks for workers that do not create “barriers for criminalized individuals to support themselves.”

RSAC also calls for a licensing system that enhances worker safety, including workplace safety sessions and contact with supportive community agencies, while protecting privacy of workers and that the city consider ways to support women who are exiting or escaping the sector.

While administration has met with workers and owners of body rub establishments, representatives from the industry have been notably absent from any public meetings, including June’s executive committee meetings.

If approved as is, the regulatory framework recommended by administration would be fully implemented in 2021, with some aspects, such as zoning bylaw changes that could happen right away.

In addition to a licensing program, administration is proposing a one-block separation distance from schools, churches, daycares and other massage parlours.

Changes to the zoning bylaw are also being recommended to distinguish between massage parlours and therapeutic massage by using the term “body rub establishments.”

Currently, the zoning bylaw allows massage parlours as a discretionary use in industrial zones, although none of the approximately 20 massage parlours currently operating in Regina are complying with the bylaw.

Administration is recommending they also be allowed as a discretionary use in major arterial zones (where most massage parlours currently operate), such as Victoria Avenue and Albert Street.