An employee walks through the Woodfibre LNG site near Squamish, B.C., in October. The Woodfibre LNG project has developed a strategy to prevent the exploitation of women and girls living nearby, including a tip line and multiple checkpoints at the work site.Tijana Martin/The Globe and Mail
The federal government’s chief adviser on human trafficking says Ottawa’s strategy to fast-track mining and energy projects must include measures to ensure that women and girls from local communities are safe from exploitation and predation by workers in nearby “man camps.”
In an interview, the adviser, Jennifer Richardson, said the sexual exploitation of young girls and women is an issue of particular concern to Indigenous communities located near sites that employ large numbers of transient male workers.
She said companies working in the mining and energy sector, often in remote, northern parts of Canada, have a responsibility to ensure that their workforce is not contributing to trafficking.
Ms. Richardson, who at age 13 was herself trafficked, said she has been speaking to the federal government about ensuring that the welfare of women and girls is considered with the planned expansion of projects to boost critical mineral supplies.
In a bid to boost Canada’s economy, Prime Minister Mark Carney set up a new Major Projects Office to cut approval times, including for new mines, to under two years.
Indigenous women and girls are disproportionately targeted by sex traffickers, and Ms. Richardson said Indigenous communities she has spoken to are concerned that the new major and extraction and energy projects, could “release violence against Indigenous women.”
“Companies are responsible for ensuring that their workforce is not creating problems in communities that they’re working in, whether that is a mine site or it’s a hotel or it’s a transportation hub, like airports,” she said.
Ms. Richardson said she understood why such projects were an economic priority. But she said preventing exploitation of women and girls living near isolated mines and energy extraction sites should be considered.
“If you look globally, you will see wherever there are large groupings of men in remote communities with large amounts of money, often because they are paid to be away for 10 weeks sometimes, that the exploitation in that community goes up,” she said.
Predation on Indigenous women by men brought in to work on extraction projects was raised during the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
“There is substantial evidence of a serious problem that requires focused attention on the relationship between resource extraction projects and violence against Indigenous women,” the 2019 final report of the inquiry said.
It described how transient workers brought in to work in isolated areas to staff mines or in oil, gas or extraction were linked to higher rates of sexual harassment and assault and women entering the sex trade.
Although many companies do have policies on sexual harassment, the report said, “It is not clear that these policies are being consistently implemented in a meaningful way.”
Ms. Richardson, who led both Ontario and Manitoba’s strategies to combat human trafficking, said the practice, involving children, young girls or adults who have been coerced or sold into the sex trade, often “happens in plain sight.”
“It can happen in front of people all the time, and people don’t recognize it,” she said.
Ms. Richardson was appointed in January, 2025, as the federal government’s Chief Advisor to Combat Human Trafficking.
She said trafficked children and women are frequently moved around Canada with some 16- or 17-year-olds flown to new destinations where there is a demand.
Ms. Richardson said the government, which is working on renewing its National Strategy to Combat Trafficking, cannot solve the issue alone and companies have a responsibility to take steps to ensure those living near their projects are not being exploited.
She recently visited Woodfibre LNG project near Squamish B.C., which has developed a strategy to prevent the exploitation of women and girls living nearby. It includes a tip line that sex trafficking victims and others could call to report wrongdoing,
She said there “were very strict conditions,” including multiple checkpoints at the work site that would make bringing trafficked girls in extremely difficult.
Woodfibre LNG said its Gender and Cultural Safety Plan set up in 2024 is “a Canadian first for a major industrial project” and was developed in conjunction with Indigenous Peoples.
Sean Beardow, a spokesman for Woodfibre LNG, said in an e-mail that its goal is to “help create a worksite and surrounding community free from gender violence, harassment and coercion.”
More than 9,000 of its workers have to take mandatory training on gender safety, delivered by Indigenous trainers.