After three years of expert testimony and insight from two-hundred witnesses, the British Columbia Cullen Commission released its final report.
The report focuses on institutional and regulatory changes in British Columbia to address money laundering while also making critiques and suggestions for improvements at the federal level.
A key win in the report is the recommendation for British Columbia to work with the federal government to create a centralized, beneficial ownership registry that is world-class, and would eventually cover the entire country.
“We applaud the Commissioner’s recommendation for the B.C. Government to work with federal counterparts and implement a publicly accessible beneficial ownership registry using a pan-Canadian framework. This is something we actively called for during the Commission,” said James Cohen, Executive Director, Transparency International Canada.
The End Snow-Washing Coalition – comprising of three civil society organizations, Transparency International Canada (TI Canada), Publish What You Pay Canada, and Canadians for Tax Fairness – served as a witness and offered testimony throughout the course of the commission.
“The final report calls for a registry which should be designed to be as effective as possible. That means, ensuring the registry is searchable, free-of-cost, and features verified data. We call upon B.C. Finance Minister Selina Robinson to signal to Ottawa that the province will work with the federal government in order to design a world-class registry. Moreover, we ask her to encourage other provinces including Alberta, Ontario and Quebec to participate in this pan-Canadian framework as well.” said Sasha Caldera, Campaign Manager, Beneficial Ownership Transparency, Publish What You Pay Canada.
Other notable recommendations in the report include fixing the B.C. Land Ownership Transparency Registry (LOTR) to remove the fee for searches by law enforcement and competent authorities and for the registry to undergo a review for improvements after a three-year period.
“Removing the search fee for the LOTR will greatly assist law enforcement and any agency, provincial or federal, to examine the registry without barriers for investigative purposes. The fee only served to hinder investigative effectiveness for law enforcement.” said DT Cochrane, economist at Canadians for Tax Fairness.
Furthermore, the Coalition applauds the recommendation to strengthen B.C.’s Civil Forfeiture Office to significantly expand its operational capacity by adding investigators and analysts capable of identifying and targeting unlawfully obtained assets and instruments of unlawful activity beyond those identified in the police file.
“Boosting the capacity for the Civil Forfeiture Office will help the province’s ability to identify and forfeit properties which may be used as underground banks, casinos, weapons, or drug caches on behalf of criminals. The province can realize millions in additional revenues through forfeiting real property,” remarked Cohen.
In addition to many of the technical recommendations in the report, the Coalition applauds the urgent tone of Commissioner Cullen’s report that stresses the threat of money laundering in B.C. and Canada has been overlooked for too long. Criminal Intelligence Service of Canada estimates that $45 billion to $113 billion dollars CAD is laundered into the country each year.
–
For media inquiries, please contact:
James Cohen
Executive Director
Transparency International Canada
Phone: 416-488-3939
Email: ti-can@transparencycanada.ca
Sasha Caldera
Campaign Manager, Beneficial Ownership Transparency
Publish What You Pay Canada
Phone: 647-861-6425
Email: scaldron@pwyp.ca