Jeune magique et intellig
2008-09-18, 02:34 AM
It’s Friday night in Uptown Saint John and Michelle is working Waterloo Street. Cars slow down, catching her eye. “Business is good tonight,” she says. “It’s only 10pm and I’ve already had five clients.”
Like most of New Brunswick’s estimated 600 sex-trade workers, Michelle is in the business for one reason only. “Right now I am making about $1,800 a week,” she says. “It adds up.”
As with other parts of the world, a growing number of New Brunswickers believe that enough of those numbers add up to make a solid business case for licensing and regulating the world’s oldest profession.
“This is big business,” says Tom Young, News 88.9’s outspoken afternoon radio host. “Controlling this industry would clean up the sex-trade, drastically cut the costs of policing it, and bring millions of dollars into the public coffers each year.”
Young adds that the money would be very welcome in a struggling economy. “The impact on our tourism and hospitality sectors alone would be staggering,” he says. “Our hotels, restaurants and bars would be raking in the profits.”
Under the promise of confidentiality, an anonymous source in the New Brunswick Government told eNBusiness that unofficial studies on the potential economic impact of regulating the profession put the windfall for the province at upwards of $20 million annually.
“As usual, the region is missing out on a good business opportunity,” sighs former Saint Mary’s University Philosophy Professor Peter March. “We have legalized extra-marital affairs, contraceptives, homosexual relations and marriage, buggery, orgies and wife-swapping, but we punish prostitutes when they solicit customers. It’s total hypocrisy.”
Not everyone upholds the assessment, however. "Street prostitution continues to be a serious criminal offense both here in this city, and in other parts of the province,” says Allen Bodechon, chief of the Saint John Police.
While he admits that there is a business case to be made for legalizing the solicitation of sexual services in New Brunswick - as there could be for any illegal activity – Bodechon believes that the notion of a utopian sex-trade industry is neither right, nor realistic. “It is something that has already been tried in other parts of the world,” he says, referring to failed business models in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Mexico City. “There is no reason to think that it would work here in New Brunswick, or anywhere else in Canada for that matter.”
Others are not as decisive. Frank Tenhave of Enterprise Fundy, the region’s Community Economic Development Agency, spoke for most. “I would like to comment on this, but in my current position and knowing the people of my region, I wouldn’t touch that issue with a 10 foot pole!”
In fact, of the more than fifty provincial, municipal, business and community leaders asked to share their views on the issue, only one opted to comment.
“This is a matter that should not be ignored,” says Steven Boyce, city councillor for Moncton’s Ward 1. “Along with the issue of legalizing marijuana, it is a subject of great moral sensitivity. However, as other jurisdictions across the world have done, we as a nation should examine whether there are better ways to manage these realities that have—and always will—exist in our society.
“Fines and incarceration alone are not a beneficial or practical solution.”
Meanwhile, back on Waterloo Street, Michelle is keeping her eyes out for the police. “Sure, I’ve been busted a few times,” she sighs, “but, so what? I pay my fine, do my time, and then get back to earning a living. Honestly, it’s a small price to pay for this kind of money.”
Like most of New Brunswick’s estimated 600 sex-trade workers, Michelle is in the business for one reason only. “Right now I am making about $1,800 a week,” she says. “It adds up.”
As with other parts of the world, a growing number of New Brunswickers believe that enough of those numbers add up to make a solid business case for licensing and regulating the world’s oldest profession.
“This is big business,” says Tom Young, News 88.9’s outspoken afternoon radio host. “Controlling this industry would clean up the sex-trade, drastically cut the costs of policing it, and bring millions of dollars into the public coffers each year.”
Young adds that the money would be very welcome in a struggling economy. “The impact on our tourism and hospitality sectors alone would be staggering,” he says. “Our hotels, restaurants and bars would be raking in the profits.”
Under the promise of confidentiality, an anonymous source in the New Brunswick Government told eNBusiness that unofficial studies on the potential economic impact of regulating the profession put the windfall for the province at upwards of $20 million annually.
“As usual, the region is missing out on a good business opportunity,” sighs former Saint Mary’s University Philosophy Professor Peter March. “We have legalized extra-marital affairs, contraceptives, homosexual relations and marriage, buggery, orgies and wife-swapping, but we punish prostitutes when they solicit customers. It’s total hypocrisy.”
Not everyone upholds the assessment, however. "Street prostitution continues to be a serious criminal offense both here in this city, and in other parts of the province,” says Allen Bodechon, chief of the Saint John Police.
While he admits that there is a business case to be made for legalizing the solicitation of sexual services in New Brunswick - as there could be for any illegal activity – Bodechon believes that the notion of a utopian sex-trade industry is neither right, nor realistic. “It is something that has already been tried in other parts of the world,” he says, referring to failed business models in Amsterdam, Tokyo and Mexico City. “There is no reason to think that it would work here in New Brunswick, or anywhere else in Canada for that matter.”
Others are not as decisive. Frank Tenhave of Enterprise Fundy, the region’s Community Economic Development Agency, spoke for most. “I would like to comment on this, but in my current position and knowing the people of my region, I wouldn’t touch that issue with a 10 foot pole!”
In fact, of the more than fifty provincial, municipal, business and community leaders asked to share their views on the issue, only one opted to comment.
“This is a matter that should not be ignored,” says Steven Boyce, city councillor for Moncton’s Ward 1. “Along with the issue of legalizing marijuana, it is a subject of great moral sensitivity. However, as other jurisdictions across the world have done, we as a nation should examine whether there are better ways to manage these realities that have—and always will—exist in our society.
“Fines and incarceration alone are not a beneficial or practical solution.”
Meanwhile, back on Waterloo Street, Michelle is keeping her eyes out for the police. “Sure, I’ve been busted a few times,” she sighs, “but, so what? I pay my fine, do my time, and then get back to earning a living. Honestly, it’s a small price to pay for this kind of money.”