By Erika Icon

YNOT – In response to Canada’s recent moratorium on work visas for foreign exotic dancers, strip clubs in Windsor have devised a novel solution for recruiting local talent: reimburse employees for college tuition.

Dancers who attend classes full- or part-time at any area college or the University of Windsor are eligible for reimbursement of up to $1,7000 if they maintain at least a B-minus average.

“The girls can take any class they want to help better themselves,” said Robert Katzman, who owns several clubs in Windsor and the U.S. “We have girls studying business, finance, to become nursing assistants and one taking chiropractory.”

Katzman’s clubs also offer a $500 sign-on bonus to new talent that meets certain guidelines. Other dancers are eligible for loans to be used for rent or money to travel to Windsor from their homes in other Canadian provinces.

According to published reports, about five percent of Canada’s estimated 38,000 strippers — or 800 women and men — are not citizens of the country. Most are from Eastern Europe and South America. All of them must either leave the trade or leave Canada under the new law. Even Americans who cross the border to work are out of luck.

In the past, so-called “stripper visas” allowed hundreds of foreign dancers to enter the country specifically to perform. All they had to do to qualify for one of the controversial documents was prove they held a job offer from a club. Meeting About 100 visas have been issued annually since 2006.

Canada Border Services Agency officials said the visa program was halted to prevent vulnerable foreign workers from exposure to “the risk of abuse and exploitation in sex trade-related businesses.”

A legal challenge to the new regulations is expected to receive a court hearing in October.