Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to rise today to highlight Not In My City, an initiative championed by a country music hall of fame honouree Paul Brandt.
Not In My City works to cultivate awareness and action to fight sexual exploitation and sex trafficking in Calgary and across Canada. The statistics around sex trafficking alone in Canada are staggering. Indigenous peoples make up only 4% of the Canadian population, and yet represent 50% of Canada's human trafficking victims. Seventy-five percent of people in prostitution began during their childhood, and 93% of Canada's human trafficking victims come from within Canada.
Next week, Not In My City will bring together businesses, organizations, and first nations groups, along with police, health, children's services, and not-for-profit agencies in and around Calgary to build an action plan to prevent sexual exploitation and sex trafficking.
I want to congratulate Paul Brandt and the Not In My City team for their relentless work on this important issue, and invite all members to join the fight against sexual exploitation and to declare “not in my city”.