Saskatoon City Council has taken more steps forward to ban conversion therapy within the city.
At council’s governance and priorities committee meeting Monday, Coun. Darren Hill’s motion was passed, 8-3, to draft a bylaw prohibiting those involved in conversion therapy practices to obtain business licenses.
Coun. Randy Donauer, Troy Davies and Bev Dubois opposed the motion.
The motion also requested that the city consult the necessary “stakeholders.”
“At the end of the day, when federal legislation is passed, (Saskatoon Police Service) is going to have to work with it. So, they should be part of this stakeholder engagement,” Hill said during the meeting.
Conversion therapy is the attempted practice of converting a person’s sexual orientation or gender identity.
On March 9, the federal government tabled legislation of bill C-8, which would make the act of conversion therapy illegal throughout Canada.
Although the legislation has been tabled, Hill says there’s still work to be done by the federal government in making the bill law.
“This bill could easily be a year away before completely passed and made into legislation.”
Hill also added that the business community, along with separate levels of government need to be consulted as “stakeholders” within the draft process.
Coun. Hilary Gough additionally moved the motion of sending a letter of support to the feds on its work with Bill C-8, which passed unanimously.