A Conservative MP is warning that a Commons committee report recommending Ottawa kill its prostitution laws could end up forcing cities like Edmonton to license and police brothels.

Sections of the draft leaked to the media show the committee is recommending the federal government scrap all Criminal Code sections that deal with adult prostitution.

Committee member and Conservative MP Art Hanger said that would put municipalities in the position of zoning and licensing urban brothels, just as they do for massage parlours and escort agencies.

"If you remove the law banning bawdy houses, then some level of government is going to have to regulate them. That's going to be the cities," said Hanger, who opposes decriminalization. "I doubt very much they're going to want to do that."

But neither Ron Hayter nor Mike Nickel believe the Martin government will risk decriminalizing all aspects of the sex trade with a spring election on the horizon.

"I think that idea's pretty far-out," said Ward 2's Hayter. "The government would end up annoying way too many people on the eve of a vote. And municipalities would be very upset at having to take on that role."

"This is just a bunch of federal politicians looking to wash their hands of the prostitution problem by dumping it on the cities to handle on their own," said Nickel, Ward 5.

"Typical. I don't think the feds will go for it. They've got too many hot potatoes on their plate already. Then again, the idea spooks me - they were pretty serious about decriminalizing marijuana."

Most of the committee members seem convinced that decriminalizing prostitution will make streetwalkers safer - by encouraging them to seek police protection from violent pimps and johns, and by removing the cop pressure that causes them to ply their trade in remote, under-policed parts of Canada's cities.

But a former Edmonton vice cop who runs a court diversion program for prostitutes said the experience with decriminalization in the Netherlands and Australia proves that it leads to an explosion in the street sex trade, and in the organized crime that feeds off it.

"If they legalize all of it, within two years you'll have 500 to 1,000 women working Edmonton's street during the peak summer season," said JoAnn McCartney. "And organized crime would be running it all.

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