Regina city council approves bylaw which forces body rub parlours to industrial areas

Regina's city council has decided on Monday that body rub parlours within the city should be allowed to operate within industrial zones only.

Going into Monday's council meeting, it was anticipated that the council would approve them on a discretionary basis, meaning applicants would have to make their case before city council.

Instead, it was approved on a permitted basis, meaning an application could be approved if all criteria from the city are met without having to address council.

"This is about the balance between competing perspectives and ... that's why we've settled on the issue of going to industrial zones," Mayor Michael Fougere said of the industrial zoning requirements.

Nearly every delegate who appeared before council on Monday night was against body rub parlours in some way, Fougere noted.

A proposed amendment to increase a buffer zone for body rub parlours from one city block to two was referred back to administration, who will prepare a report on the potential impacts of that to be presented some time in March.

Fougere balked at the notion from other councillors that increasing buffer zones would essentially ban parlours from the city.

Body rub parlours currently outside of the acceptable zones will have to relocate or shutdown, Fougere said. 

Costs could be $40K

Before the meeting, three entrepreneurs who run body rub parlours in Regina penned a letter to city council saying requiring them to move to industrial areas is "misguided" and will cost each parlour an average of $40,000. 

The owners say this would force 17 out of 18 massage parlours to move. 

"The proposal is basically theft," reads the letter, signed by the owners' representative Shayna Stock. "Many ladies have spent tens of thousands of dollars to buy parlours, or to renovate locations."

The owners have disclosed their identity privately to council but are having Stock, executive director of the Heritage Community Association, speak for them publicly at the meeting. 

Besides cost, the owners also say moving to the industrial zones would be a safety issue for workers and customers.

The body rub parlours — so named to distinguish the businesses where sexual services are offered from therapeutic massage parlours — would be limited to underpopulated and low traffic areas, which have less lighting, fewer public transportation options and a reduced police presence after regular business hours.

The owners said the inconvenience would push some workers to take part in unregulated work out of houses, apartments, Airbnbs and hotels. They said this also brings safety issues.

"In other cities almost all of the crime and violence against ladies occurs in unlicensed residential establishments, not licensed parlours," they wrote.

In letters from residents, some said the parlours diminish their neighbourhood's character. One said children shouldn't have to walk past them on their way to school. 

"Regardless of where they are placed, body rub establishments will bring concerning harms, but the greatest of these arising in close proximity to residential areas, and (while still concerning) the lowest risks being in Industrial heavy zones," wrote Jane Gattinger.

Who owns the parlours?

On Sept. 23, council voted in favour of regulating the city's body rub parlours at a special council meeting, narrowly beating a motion to ban the businesses.

The Regina Sexual Assault Centre said the new rules could be ineffective because the sex workers in body rub parlours are likely not there willingly, or working independently. 

The owners also say their businesses have been unfairly demonized.

"The owners are the workers. We are not human traffickers. We are not exploiting workers. We are not members of organized crime. We are not victims. We are not pimping underage, vulnerable, desperate drugged-up girls," reads the letter. "We are not the scum of the earth."

The owners say they are all Canadian citizens or permanent residents, most of Asian heritage, with English as a second language.  

They say they were not properly consulted by the city on the proposed changes and feel as though making the licensing discretionary, "is clearly an attempt to make the process overly difficult and intimidating, especially to those owners whose first language is not English."

"It is unfortunate that some council members chose to ignore or disregard our input as nobody could be more knowledgeable on this matter than us."

According to the business owners, the first parlour opened in Dec. 2009 on Albert St. and now there are 18 in the city. They said most only employ the owner, with some having one other staff member.  

"Some members on city council and a few citizens are obsessed with a few businesses with blinking lights and flashing open signs...they ruin neighbourhoods and cause an increase in crime," the letter reads. "We would suggest 10 years of evidence shows no such thing. 

"To punish us now by ghettoizing us to industrial zones is extremely unfair, robs us of our assets, seems prejudicial in nature, and in fact will increase the dangers to us that council was reportedly trying to prevent."