Mr. Speaker, earlier this year two reports on sexually exploited youth were released in British Columbia. In September the Downtown Eastside Youth Activity Society released a report examining the situation in the Downtown, Eastside and Strathcona neighbourhoods in my constituency of Vancouver East.
In November a similar report of the sexually exploited youth committee of the Capital Regional District released a report on the situation in Victoria and the surrounding communities.
Both reports came to a similar conclusion. That conclusion is that we cannot isolate the problem of sexually exploited youth from other problems that face our communities and our young people.
In the Victoria study, poverty and homelessness emerged as key issues. Two-thirds of the youths surveyed reported that they were afraid of not having enough money to survive. Almost half of them said that they were living on the street when they first became involved in the sex trade. One-third reported trading sexual favours for a place to sleep.
Housing and poverty were also identified as the problem in the Vancouver study. The difficulty sex trade workers have getting housing and other services contributes to their isolation and makes it harder for sexually exploited youths to get off the street.
Both studies found high levels of drug use among sexually exploited youth. In Victoria 25% were intravenous drug users. In Vancouver the figure was 75%.
The most appalling finding of the study was the number of sexually exploited youth who had been sexually abused prior to their entry into the sex trade. Between 70% and 95% of youth surveyed in Vancouver were sexually abused prior to their entry into the sex trade.
In both studies the picture painted of sexually exploited youth was one of young people who felt betrayed by society and who were struggling to survive. These young people are extremely marginalized.
We understand that there are no quick fixes. We do need solutions that make it easier for exploited youth to leave the sex trade and easier for them to survive until they make the decision to leave.
Among the measures which were put forward in these reports was a network of safe houses, a witness protection program to ensure the safety of sexually exploited youth involved in court proceedings, a change in the age of consent and changes in the law to allow more successful prosecutions against those who sexually exploit children and youth. I will be working with the local community on these particular issues in the New Year.
In addition, there are concerns about how we address some of the problems facing these youths, including homelessness and the treatment of drug addiction. Action on the solutions to these studies identified does require the active co-operation of the federal government. I would urgently ask the federal government to examine these reports with a view to assisting with solutions.
The fact is that the federal government has abandoned social housing. We have not set any targets on poverty. There is no doubt that increasing numbers of children are now at risk.
Many of the young people in the sex trade have completely lost faith with all government and with all authorities. We have to be committed to this. There have been too many reports produced and they all say the same thing, that increasing numbers of our young people are at risk.
It is time for this government to take action to provide housing, to end poverty, to provide better services, to provide better treatment programs for addiction, to assist these sexually exploited youth.