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Jade Blackwood plans a goodbye party on July 5 at Jilly’s, the strip club where she works at Broadview Avenue and Queen Street East. Jilly’s has been good to her.

As a teen, Ms. Blackwood moved from Durham Region to downtown Toronto. She needed a job.

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“I walked in the door,” she recalls. “I had no experience. Based on my looks at the time, they hired me. I was 19.”

For 22 years she has worked at Jilly’s as a waitress. The job put her through chef’s school at George Brown College. And the money allowed her last year to buy a house back where she came from — in Whitby.

“Jilly’s adds character to the neighbourhood,” says Ms. Blackwood. “I am going to miss it. It will be hard.” She has no idea where the dancers — up to 30 or 40 “girls” on a busy night — will go. “I am still trying to grasp it myself,” she says.

Dancing naked in a bar is a declining profession in Toronto. In 1997, the city of Toronto issued 2,844 “burlesque entertainer” licenses, the cards that permit women and men to strip. That number has dropped by more than half. Today 1,284 people in town hold valid licenses to disrobe, paying $367.36 the first year and $258.70 to renew.