Mr. Speaker, the involvement of young people in prostitution is a serious and tragic problem that has become more evident over recent years as the hon. member says. I want to thank the hon. member for bringing this to the attention of the House. It is particularly troublesome because young people by virtue of their age and legal status are more vulnerable than adults to danger, exploitation and abuse.
The federal government is extremely concerned about this problem, despite what the member said. For this reason it introduced Bill C-27, which Parliament passed last spring, to address some of the issues surrounding the involvement of young people in prostitution.
These new laws are intended to give the police more efficient means to enforce the offence of obtaining the sexual services of a person under the age of 18.
In addition to easing the burden of young witnesses in prostitution related cases, Parliament also created a very severe penalty for those procurers who use violence or intimidation against youth involved in prostitution.
One thing is clear, however. Criminal law alone will never suffice to eradicate child and youth prostitution. It is a community problem that must be dealt with on many fronts, including the areas of social policy and education as the hon. member indicated.
It is only by co-operating together at all levels, federal, provincial and territorial, that we will be able to tackle the root causes underlying the involvement of youth. It is anticipated that in late December, the federal-provincial-territorial working group on prostitution will be presenting to the federal, provincial and territorial ministers responsible for justice, its recommendations on legislation and policy practices concerning prostitution related activities.
A status report was presented recently at the federal-provincial meeting in early December in Montreal. The issue of child sexual exploitation was a matter of concern to ministers. At the urging of British Columbia, the Minister of Justice agreed to draft amendments to the Criminal Code to strengthen enforcement efforts against those who buy sex from children.
Also, the British Columbia and other provincial ministers further requested to increase the age of consent to sexual activity to 16. This also will be seriously considered.
Therefore we will be coming back to the House with some recommendations.