OTTAWA — The Senate has adopted a Conservative backbench MP's bill to ensure traffickers of children in Canada spend at least five years in jail, removing its final hurdle in becoming law.

The bill puts in place mandatory minimum sentences for people convicted of trafficking children in Canada, with at least five years for most offences and six years for offences involving aggravated circumstances, such as sexual assault.

The current law imposes a maximum penalty of 14 years for human trafficking, regardless of the victim's age, but there is no minimum. Human trafficking has been an offence in Canada for less than five years.

Manitoba MP Joy Smith's private member's bill passed in the House of Commons last September, with the support of the Conservatives and most Liberal and NDP MPs. The Bloc Quebecois voted against the bill.

Smith says the bill is needed because the first few convictions under the law resulted in lenient sentences.

But the debate in the Senate has been slow, and it has sat in the upper chamber for nearly nine months. It received third reading Thursday, and is due to receive royal assent and be proclaimed law.

"Bill C-268 is an important step forward in addressing human trafficking here in Canada," Smith said in a statement. "Traffickers need to know that Canada will not accept the exploitation and sale of our children and any attempts to do so will be met with stiff consequences."

Smith said the bill is the only private member's bill to be passed by Parliament since the most recent election in 2008. Its passing is "even more significant" since it amends the Criminal Code, she said. Prior to this legislation, only 14 private member's bills containing Criminal Code amendments have been adopted by Parliament since Confederation.