'She didn't have a way out': Newmarket spa owner praises town's new personal wellness licensing

Newmarket first in York Region with bylaw; town to take 'zero tolerance' approach with sex service businesses

Yorkregion.com
April 4, 2022
Lisa Queen

As Newmarket prepared to lay bylaw charges against "rub and tugs" providing sexual services, the first business owner to obtain the town’s first personal wellness establishment license said she feels strongly about the issue.

Katie Gilligan, owner of Timeless Harmony Salon and Spa, knows a mother whose daughter was lured into the sex industry.

The then-16-year-old girl from Toronto was enticed to a Newmarket shopping centre with a promise of a well-paying dancing job, but was forced to work as a sex worker in Toronto.

After two years of trying to escape and fearing threats made against her family, the girl killed herself.

“I feel so strongly for this because it destroyed (the mother),” Gilligan said.

“Her daughter’s been gone for eight years and she’s never recovered because of the fact that she couldn’t get her daughter out and her daughter chose that the only way to save her family was for her to end her life ... She didn’t have a way out.”

Last month, Gilligan’s spa became the first business to obtain a $152.25 annual license under Newmarket’s new personal wellness establishment classification, granted to businesses providing relaxation, hot stone and other similar massages not performed by registered massage therapists (RMTs), who are already provincially licensed.

Newmarket is the first community in York Region with such a bylaw.

“The only way we can put an end to this is if all the accredited spas out there stand up and get the licence so they can go after the people who don’t have the licence to shut them down,” Gilligan said.

“These women, there are some of them who want to be in the industry but some of them are forced into the industry.”

Having graduated from a two-year Seneca College esthetics program that provided extensive training on anatomy and disinfection techniques, Gilligan said the new bylaw recognizes the expertise properly trained professionals providing massages have.

“We have such a passion about healing people,” she said.

“I’m proud (to be first). I really, really want to encourage the other spas to do this. Let’s make our industry a higher-level industry and let’s take that responsibility upon ourselves to make it an accredited industry.”

Not everyone was pleased with Newmarket’s approach.

At a council meeting on body rub parlours last June, critics warned the new bylaw would hurt massage workers unable to meet the requirements.

A couple deputants went further, accusing the policy of being racist against Asian workers and stressed not all sex workers are forced into the profession.

The new bylaw requires businesses giving massages not performed by an RMT to provide credentials from an accredited Canadian institution and undergo an interview and inspection, Flynn Scott, the town’s manager of regulatory services, said.

“The key is making sure people providing those services are trained and competent,” he said.

“You’re putting your hands on them. You’re manipulating their muscles, even from a relaxation perspective. There’s a lot that goes into a massage that could be damaging to the consumer.”

The town has so far identified 15 businesses providing non-RMT massages requiring licenses and 11 have either obtained a licence or have applied, Scott said.

However, a handful have not complied and the town is expected to begin laying charges in April, he said, adding fines will range between $4,000 and $5,000 a day.

“Businesses that have failed to respond to us to date, we have concrete evidence that they’re offering sexual services,” Scott said.

“We are taking a zero-tolerance approach ... If they’re not responsive or not willing to communicate with us to resolve the issue, then our next step would be fines per day. The end result would ultimately be shutting the business down.”

Meanwhile, the town will consider licensing requirements for other personal wellness providers such as tattoo artists, hair stylists and those providing manicures and pedicures, this year, Scott said.

For more information, visit newmarket.ca/licensing.