VANCOUVER—The official opposition BC Liberal Party needs to stop being “cynical” and help Attorney General David Eby tackle the province’s money laundering problem, says provincial Green Party leader Andrew Weaver.

Friday, the B.C. Liberals accused the governing New Democrats of playing games after Eby sent a letter to leader Andrew Wilkinson asking him to waive party privilege on documents related to money laundering so more could be learned about how the Liberals fought it while in government.

“Our position is we have to get to the bottom of this,” Weaver said in an interview with StarMetro. “I don’t think it helps when you have a flippant response suggesting this is nothing but a game.”

Those decrying the move as being political — because the letter was sent to media before Wilkinson had a chance to digest it — need to put their complaints aside to get to the root of the problem together, he added.

In June, a highly anticipated independent report from former regional RCMP deputy Peter German was released, exposing that casinos in the province were being used to help launder money, including actual bags full of cash.

Rich Coleman, who was gaming minister when the Liberals were in power, has since insisted his government “did everything we could” to mitigate the money laundering.

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Eby’s letter asked the Liberals to waive cabinet privilege, which allows sitting and former governments to keep internal discussions secret, to avoid duplicating “unsuccessful” efforts to combat money laundering made by the Liberals when they governed.

“The information found in these documents would contribute to our efforts in finding ways to comprehensively end such criminal practices in B.C. casinos and throughout B.C.’s economy,” Eby wrote to Wilkinson.

The BC Liberals didn’t like the idea. The party’s house leader, Mary Polak, on Friday accused Eby of politicizing the issue.

“Instead of playing games with confidential cabinet documents, the attorney general should focus on implementing the recommendations from the German report and pursuing charges against those who have broken the law,” Polak said.

Polak’s response isn’t good enough for Weaver, one of three Green Party MLAs holding the balance of power in the legislature and honouring an agreement to allow the NDP to govern after helping it topple the Liberal government in 2017.

He said he “cannot fathom” why Polak issued the response, saying it serves to further cynicism toward governance in British Columbia.

“Honestly, I don’t know what the BC Liberals stand for anymore,” Weaver said. “I would have thought that they’d have put together an informed response that would have actually insured that we get to the bottom of this.”

The BC Liberals did not respond to a request for comment on Weaver’s statement by publication time Saturday.

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Meanwhile, Eby’s office said it is working to arrange a meeting with the former head of the province’s illegal gambling enforcement team, Fred Pinnock, in September.

The meeting aims to follow up on allegations made in the media by Pinnock that the BC Liberals knew about the money laundering problem but chose to ignore it when in power.

—with files from David P. Ball

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