Escort Bylaw changes going before council include lower fees

By Collin Gallant on October 19, 2024.

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City council will consider updating the local Escort Bylaw – including cutting licence fees in half to match licensing fees in other Alberta cities – after it faced a legal challenge last winter.

An Ontario women fought her ticket issued by the Medicine Hat Police Service under the 21-year-old statute in court, though a potential Charter challenge that her rights were contravened became a non-issue when the search was deemed inadmissible and the ticket was tossed.

Her local legal representative Ken Montgomery had argued at trial that local fees, definitions and enforcement practices were akin to regulation of prostitution and contrary to federal rules decriminalizing the sale, though not the purchase, of sexual favours.

City lawyers, acting as prosecutors of the municipal bylaw, argued the bylaw was valid, but the case also interrupted an internal city review of the bylaw ordered by council members.

On Thursday, changes were introduced to council’s development and infrastructure committee that would reduce fees and further define the activities covered but still does not describe sexual services.

The committee forwarded the amendments to council for approval with limited debate beyond councillors’ discussion with police about the level of regulation.

“When the rules are prohibitive, people start going around the rules,” said Coun. Shila Sharps.

There is currently one agency licensed to operated in the city, comprising 12 individually licensed escorts, said Sgt. Darren Lole, who is in charge of enforcing the bylaw and investigations as a member of the Medicine Hat Police Service, not the bylaw division.

Another four individuals are licensed as “independent” escorts.

Agency operators had been contacted about the changes and were in general agreement, said Lole, who felt licensed operators want to maintain a standard of regulation to limit less legitimate activity.

He told committee the cost is not considered the barrier to potential applicants, but many are not serious or withdraw interest when regulations come into play.

“The rules are not prohibitive, but they are appropriate in the interests of public safety,” said Lole.

The bylaw, which was last updated in 2003, restricts advertising and requires business be conducted at commercial, and specifically not residential, properties, and requires record keeping regarding clientele and transactions.

That last provision would be lessened to limit “burden” on city staff and operators.

The existing bylaw defines an “escort” as an “individual who charges or receives a fee or any other compensation for acting as a date or providing personal companionship for a limited period of time.”

To it a suggested exemption would explicitly exclude “a person providing assistance to another person because of that other person’s age or ability.”

That would exempt home care workers or other companionship services available to disabled people – a key point in the legal arguments made last year.

Changes to fees “address the concern that Escort fees are significantly higher than those for all other business licence fees in Medicine Hat,” according to a staff memo.

Licensing fees are currently set at $5,000 for an agency, but if adopted, the rate beginning in 2025 would fall to $1,800 for a resident applicant or $2,400 for non-residents. An additional individual licence would cost $125 to $180, down from about $350 at present, and an independent agency licence would fall from $3,000 to either $750 or $1,200, depending on residency.

A comparison of four other major centres in Alberta found only Red Deer’s agency fee at $5,000, twice as much as Lethbridge’s and 10 times higher than Calgary or Edmonton. Only two required individual licences: Medicine Hat and Calgary ($237).

Medicine Hat’s independent agency fee was twice as much at Red Deer’s ($1500), but would fall below that, if approved.

That matter is expected to reach council in November.

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