The City of Kenora will be the location of a third facility in the province to help victims of human trafficking.

Engagement and consultation sessions are already underway.

Jaye Wesley from the Kenora Human Trafficking Committee says the Children at Risk of Exploitation facility or CARE is definitely needed in Kenora.

“Because of the agencies that we work with, we do see that there are individuals, especially youth who are coming in and are being trafficked,” said Wesley following announcement for the CARE unit on Wednesday morning at the Discovery Center.

“All ages, all genders.  It’s not really out in the forefront, but there  really is a need for a facility like that in this community.”

Minister of Children, Community and Social Services was on hand for the announcement and says the local feedback is important.

“This is a part of the Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy we have in place.  It’s a $307 million dollar investment we have put forward.  This is above and beyond all the initiatives that we support and of course this is a big signature part of our Anti-Human Trafficking Strategy.”

Parsa adds that sex trafficking is the most common form of Human-Trafficking and the average age of the victims is just 13.

He points out the CARE units do work having served 218 children in the Toronto and Durham areas and 136 of the victims were youth under the age of 15.