Ottawa became Canada’s leading city in police-reported human trafficking incidents in 2015, making up over a quarter of the Canadian total according to data released by Statistics Canada this summer.

59 incidents of human trafficking were reported by Ottawa police last year, a significant increase from the 23 incidents in 2014 and 12 in 2013. Of the 210 incidents across Canada, Ottawa made up for 28 per cent.

The reason for those numbers? The Ottawa Police Human Trafficking Unit, at least in part.

In 2014, the Ottawa Police began investigating human trafficking in Ottawa by creating a unit designed specifically to fight it. The team, which consists of four detectives and one sergeant, investigates cases where trafficking might be a concern and try to help the victims by bringing them to a place of safety.

“We have seen a steady increase in the numbers since the start of the task force,” said Sgt. Jeff Leblanc, who is the sergeant assigned to the unit.

Leblanc did warn not to trust the numbers blindly. Numbers might vary based on who is filing the case, since human trafficking violations can be filed in different categories.

Human trafficking is defined by the criminal code as recruiting, transporting, transferring, receiving, holding, concealing or harbouring a person, or exercising control or influence over the movements of a person, for the purposes of exploiting them. In Ottawa, the market is making potentially as much as $25.5 million a year, according to a report by PACT-Ottawa released in 2014, with each girl making anywhere from $500-$1700 a night.

Although this paints a general picture of the human trafficking market in Ottawa, Leblanc said that its hard to get a sense of the scope of the issue, adding that his team only has five people. “Any time of the day you can look and find over 100 ads…it’s hard to know who is in the sex trade willingly from that and who is having someone force them,” Leblanc said.

The issue of human trafficking has been gaining more attention from the public and the government recently, according to Leblanc. In 2012 the federal government launched Canada’s National Action Plan to Combat Human Trafficking, and gives annual reports on progress. And this past June it was announced that Ontario will invest up to $72 million as part of the Strategy to End Human Trafficking, which will focus on increasing awareness and understanding of the causes of the crime.

Looking back at the data released by Statistics Canada, it is noteworthy that while 2015 saw 59 incidents of police reported human trafficking, only 8 persons were charged. 32 were cleared. Toronto, which saw only 40 incidents of police-reported trafficking, ended the year with 45 persons charged.

Note that the reason for Toronto’s higher persons charged than incidents, according to Statistics Canada, is that an “incident” refers to a single event, but there can be more than one victim, accuser or criminal offence provided they occur at the same time in the same place. “So while we may have a single incident there can also be more then one accused which can result in the number of charged being high than the number of incidents,” said Gowoon Lee, Media Relations Officer at Statistics Canada, in an email.

For those persons charged with human trafficking, the standard prison sentence under Bill C-49 is up to 14 years. If the accused kidnapped the victim, committed an aggravated assault or sexual assault against the victim, or caused the victim’s death during the trafficking violation, the sentence is imprisonment for life.