The federal minister in charge of organized crime reduction met with BC’s Attorney General in Victoria Wednesday to discuss the next steps to address money laundering in the province.
Bill Blair went over some of the measures introduced in last week’s budget.
“We recognize its impact, we can see the impact that its having in our country, in our communities and in our neighbourhoods and so we are quite prepared to work on that,” Blair said after meeting with David Eby.
“I can tell you with absolute certainty its a significant problem.”
The former Toronto police chief said the federal government pledged to create a multi-agency task force in its budget to fight money laundering.
“I worked in organized crime for very many years and it’s always been difficult because organized crime doesn’t share their spreadsheets with us,” said Blair.
“In knowing the full scope of it, we have to really rely on intelligence and the analysis of that intelligence.”
Last year, an international anti-money laundering agency said organized criminals used an underground banking system in B.C. to funnel up to $1 billion annually from the proceeds of crime through casinos.
Eby said B.C. should be in line for the bulk of federal money and resources available to attack money laundering, regardless of how big the problem is in the province.
“Whether it’s $100 million or a billion dollars, whatever it is, it’s very hard to know what the actual number it is,” said Eby.
“What we need to do is close the loopholes and ensure we’re addressing the systematic issues that are leading to a lack of prosecutions, a lack of convictions in B.C. on this issue.”
Eby said B.C. is waiting for the delivery of two government commissioned reports before deciding whether to call a public inquiry into money laundering at some Metro Vancouver-area casinos.
With files from Canadian Press
Ben O'Hara
