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The inquiry will reconvene in May for a money laundering overview and to quantify the extent of the problem in B.C., before main hearings are held from September through December to dig into specific industries and government responses.

Eby has been pushing for action on money laundering since he was an Opposition member and said he first became concerned about it while working as a lawyer in Vancouver’s impoverished Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

“I watched many of my clients, who were badly addicted to drugs and mentally ill, scraping together money to buy drugs,” he said. “I knew the money was going somewhere and it was a lot of money.”

People carrying bags of cash into casinos were treated as VIPs with “total impunity,” he said, while police were spending a great deal of time on his former clients in the Downtown Eastside.

The NDP government has made several changes since taking power in 2017, including the creation of a public registry of property owners so those investing in real estate can’t hide behind numbered companies. It has also pressed the federal government for action.

With a provincial election expected next year, it’s fair to ask whether the inquiry is in part political, given that the reports commissioned by the NDP have indicated money laundering worsened under the B.C. Liberals’ watch between 2009 and 2015.

Eby argued that most B.C. residents already know the previous government, at best, turned a blind eye, and at worst, recognized dirty money was generating revenue, dismantled a police unit responsible for the problem and increased betting limits.