Public inquiry into B.C. casino money laundering still a possibility, AG David Eby says

B.C. Attorney General David Eby talks ICBC rates and the possibility of a full-blown casino inquiry with The Vancouver Sun and Province editorial board.

 August 30, 2018

In a wide-ranging interview Thursday, Attorney General David Eby discussed everything from what kind of rate hikes the province’s drivers can expect to the possibility of a public inquiry into money laundering in B.C. casinos.

The decision on whether to mount a full public casino inquiry could largely hinge on the results of a meeting next month with the province’s former top cop on illegal gambling, Eby told the editorial board of The Vancouver Sun and Province.

Money laundering in B.C. casinos, one of several hot-button issues in Eby’s portfolio, has been in the headlines since last September when Eby ordered an independent casino review.

Next month, Fred Pinnock, the former head of B.C.’s Integrated Illegal Gambling Enforcement Team, will be accompanied by his own lawyer when he meets with outside counsel hired by the B.C. government, Eby said, adding: “It will take as long as it takes to get the information that’s necessary.”

Pinnock spoke out last month, blaming the former B.C. Liberal government and his former superiors in the RCMP for failing to crack down on criminal activity in casinos.

“It was the Wild West in those large casinos where organized criminal activity was running amok,” Pinnock said at the time. “They all knew what was going on.”

Eby told Postmedia News: “These are incredibly serious allegations and if Mr. Pinnock has evidence that causes cabinet to believe that it’s necessary, we’re leaving open the possibility that we might do a public inquiry on the casino piece. It’s still an open question, the Premier hasn’t closed the book on that one.”

British Columbians’ appetite for a public inquiry is strong, according to a Research Co. poll published last week which found three quarters of respondents believe the provincial government should call a public inquiry into money laundering in casinos.

But public inquiries are also long and expensive, Eby said Thursday. The independent review into casino money laundering, conducted by former RCMP deputy commissioner Peter German and released in June, was set up as a fact-finding exercise and not for finding fault, in order to allow the government to act quickly.

Eby also discussed the next phase of German’s work: a planned investigation into the role of dirty money in B.C.’s housing market. German has also identified other B.C. sectors that could be vulnerable to money laundering and which he believes merit further investigation, including horse racing, luxury cars, and money service businesses.

Eby also discussed his government’s efforts to overhaul ICBC, the province’s auto insurer that faced a $1.3 billion operating loss for the 2017-18 fiscal year. In January, Postmedia quoted a briefing note prepared for Eby which described “years of bad decisions and mismanagement” by the previous Liberal government, stating that B.C. drivers faced “a hike of at least $400 more in their premiums by next year unless we take immediate action to keep rates more affordable.”

But on Thursday, Eby said his goal was to keep rate increases for basic insurance at the level of inflation or lower. Last month, B.C.’s yearly inflation rate was 2.2 per cent, according to Statistics Canada.

Eby said the government hoped to keep rate increases under control with a series of reforms at ICBC, including attempts to rein in its court costs which he described as “just completely out of control” and a new rate framework intended to more closely link driving behaviour and risk to the rates drivers pay.