B.C.’s dirty cash inquiry needs deadline: ex-AG

The British Columbia government needs to set clear goals and a firm timeline if it launches a public inquiry into money laundering, says a former provincial attorney general who led an exhaustive probe of missing and murdered women.

Wally Oppal said he believes his inquiry had an impact after it wrapped in 2012. Police now investigate these cases far differently than they did when serial killer Robert Pickton was preying on vulnerable women, he said.

“A lot of good things can come of them, but before governments establish inquiries, they should first of all ask themselves: What questions need to be answered? Did something go wrong? And what are the powers that we’re going to give to an inquiry commissioner?” Oppal said.

“The other thing is you have to have a definite end line, otherwise it can go on forever.”

Calls for an inquiry have been mounting since the provincial government released two reports on money laundering last week. One report estimated $7.4 billion was laundered in B.C. last year, of which $5 billion was funnelled through real estate and drove up home prices five per cent.

Premier John Horgan has said his government will decide whether to call a public inquiry into money laundering following a cabinet meeting on Wednesday.

“In the Pickton inquiry, we had 19, 20 lawyers in the room at any given time,” Horgan said. “But in that inquiry, we needed to find out why so many women were murdered. ... It was important that we got answers as to what mistakes were made.”

Before calling an inquiry into money laundering, the province should also consider whether it would compromise any ongoing police investigations, he added. People who are subpoenaed to give testimony in an inquiry may not be able to give evidence if they’re subject to a criminal investigation.

The missing-women inquiry cost about $10 million and the province reported in February that it had made “significant progress” on the recommendations.

Despite a common perception that B.C. is the dirty-money “capital” of Canada, one of the reports released last week painted a different picture.

It said the province ranked fourth for money laundering among a division of six regions in Canada, behind Alberta, Ontario and the Prairies — collectively Saskatchewan and Manitoba — at least for the years 2011 to 2015.

It also said B.C. only accounted for 15 per cent of the $47 billion laundered across Canada last year.

Weaver said the report’s finding about the scale of the issue in B.C. compared with other provinces didn’t change his mind. It’s not surprising that more dirty cash was washed clean in a larger province such as Ontario, he said, adding that money laundering has affected B.C. differently than Prairie provinces.

“If you’re not having pressures on your real estate like we’ve had here, a five per cent push or a seven per cent push in one year on prices from laundering money may not have had the same effect as it did here. Our affordability issue is second to none in the country.

“That, in and of itself, is the reason why we need to show leadership.”