Budget dollars sought to enhance trafficking strategy

The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking (CCEHT) is hoping the 2026 federal budget coming out on Nov. 5 makes significant overdue progress in shaping a pan-Canadian response to disrupt this criminally lucrative scourge against humanity. 

James McLean, the organization’s research and policy director, crafted several recommendations for the budget that he submitted to the House of Commons’ Standing Committee on Finance. The top call to action is publishing a new well-funded and resourced National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking by May 2027. 

Canada has been without a renewed national strategy since the latest five-year plan expired in 2024. While provisions from the 2019-2024 plan are active, and consultations have been conducted with various stakeholders in the anti-trafficking community about a renewed approach, McLean stressed the urgency of getting this job done. 

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“The current federal strategy is now in its seventh year, and it's not clear how it has been adapted to respond to all the changes in terms of how trafficking is perpetrated, and how the needs of survivors have changed over time,” said McLean. “In the time the strategy has been around, we've seen exploitation move more online, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

There are calls for this national strategy to empower survivors to serve as advisors as they could offer the most compelling testimony and information about how to aid in prevention and healing. The CCEHT, which operates the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, is also advocating for more social service programs to be developed that address the needs of survivors. And to better counter the well-funded nature of the human trafficking syndicate, the organization wants more grant money to be dispersed to anti-trafficking groups to ensure the sector’s sustainability. 

Catholic groups involved in the fight against trafficking and/or aiding survivors include Covenant House, the Mary Ward Centre, Catholic Social Services, Talitha Kun and the Catholic Women’s League.

Sexual exploitation accounts for 69 per cent of trafficking cases identified by the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline, but labour trafficking, in other words modern slavery, is a rising contagion. The number of labour exploitation cases reported to the hotline rose from 24 in each of 2020-2022 to 100 in 2024. The 2025 numbers are expected before the end of the year.

McLean said “the reality is there's a substantial number of individuals in our country, supporting our economy, making our communities richer, who are vulnerable to this type of exploitation. And we are not seeing a coherent response anywhere in the country to help support them and protect them from abuse.”

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Budget recommendation number two from the CCHEHT is a series of measures that could potentially clamp down on labour exploitation, including:

• Phasing out closed permits that tie workers to a single employer.
• Expanding pathways from temporary to permanent residence. 
• Making Employment and Social Development Canada's Migrant Worker Support Program a permanent stable funding stream.
• Increasing resources to monitor recruiters and employers in the hiring of temporary foreign workers to ensure compliance with federal and provincial legislation.

The third and main call to action is for the federal government to create a funding framework that incentivizes provinces to further develop prevention and survivor accompaniment strategies. The CCEHT stated that strong provincial plans should require “the integration of lived experience in policy and program design, prevention initiatives, public education and awareness, trauma-informed law enforcement responses, and trafficking-specific social services.”

McLean said “we’re not asking Ottawa to take over provincial responsibilities,” but to use its leadership and funding capacity to make the national response more coordinated and effective.”

"As we look out across the country, we are seeing some positive movement, but it's not coordinated,” he said. “We’re not seeing the strategic vision that's going to be required to address an issue that spans Canadian borders.”

Statistics Canada’s Trafficking in Persons, 2024 report recorded 608 incidences of human trafficking that were reported to law enforcement, and the 500-650 victims identified annually by the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline barely scratch the surface of the trafficking problem nationwide. 

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It is established knowledge that fewer than 10 per cent of victims feel comfortable sharing their traumatic story with police. General feelings of mistrust, fears of trafficker reprisals, deep psychological scarring, language barriers and disenchantment over how the legal system prosecutes trafficking cases are among the primary reasons why victims remain silent.

If you or someone you know is at risk of trafficking, reach out to the Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline at canadianhumantraffickinghotline.ca.

(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)