Body rub parlours will need to be approximately one block from a lengthy list of family-friendly locations in Regina.
Municipal politicians approved the separation distance in a compromise during a meeting Wednesday.
Deliberation actually began months earlier. In December, Coun. Lori Bresciani asked administration about doubling the recommended 182.88-metre buffer zone and expanding the number of places to which it would apply.
Some of her colleagues feared that would essentially mean there would be very few, if any, suitable places for the establishments to operate, and voiced that concern, citing the maps provided in a staff report.
“This is going down the ban road, which is contradictory to what this policy set out to achieve,” Coun. Andrew Stevens said.
Coun. Jerry Flegel agreed.
“We’re just talking about a ban in a different word,” he said.
City council voted to regulate, not ban, body rub parlours in September.
Coun. Sharron Bryce referred to the establishments as “a problem in our community,” adding that “solving it is restricting it as much as possible.”
She was one of the five councillors who originally voted for the two-block separation distance and the expanded list of places to which it would apply. Five of her colleagues were opposed.
Coun. Bob Hawkins, initially in favour of the two-block distance, proposed the middle ground.
He suggested the establishments stick with the 182.88-metre separation distance from schools, parks, daycares, enclosed rinks, libraries, community centres, sensitive lots and other body rub parlours, as recommended by staff — but that recreation centres and places of worship be added to the list and the grandfathering provision be removed.
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