Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for that very relevant question.
Studies that have been conducted on other countries that have legalized or decriminalized prostitution—New Zealand, Australia, Holland, Germany—have found that in cases where it has been legalized, there has been a direct increase in human trafficking. There has also been a huge increase in the number of very violent crimes against the sex workers, so those who are vulnerable, because of legalization, have become increasingly more vulnerable.
However, in the case of Sweden, which is the Nordic model, from which we drew some of the best parts and of course formed our own Canadian model, what was found was that the number of sex offences decreased, the number of workers withdrew, there were social programs put in place to help those who wanted to withdraw, and there was notably a decrease in the sex trade, which is what we are trying to do with this very bill.