Money laundromat - NDP blames the Liberals

[southy]

Caught the interview today with Carol James and the ever astute sky is falling .. David Eby! So the money washing / laundering is substantially higher than ever thought - so the report says. The part I have trouble with is how this group can't simply state we have a major issue here and we're going to work at fixing it. No this group has to constantly and Carol James is the worst take pot shots at the Liberals as if it was all their fault. Sickening it really is. And Eby - watch and listen to him, he consistently talks in catastrophic phrasing, like whatever it is he's talking about is terrible .. very terrible. People the sky is falling … believe what I say. *bleep* to the max. Yes, the laundering issue is huge … but instead of constantly taking shots at the former government - get on with resolving this. Work with the opposition not against them. Bring in the Feds … do whatever you have to do but get it done. The only real issue I see here though is that the NDP/G will not be around long enough to fix anything. But I guess as official opposition they can help steer the ship to remedy it. Maybe!

[Brerrabbit18]

Work with the opposition not against them

Lmao...
Yes, that's the plan.

I mean, the Liberals are the BEST at working towards a solution for the high gas prices..

Also, the Liberals presided over the province for 90% of the timeline during the ramping up of this problem, yet said time and time again that nothing was going on in the Vancouver real estate market? They even refused to look into it for YEARS..

Maybe point your indignation where it belongs....

[Urban Cowboy]

Work with the opposition not against them

Lmao...
Yes, that's the plan.

I mean, the Liberals are the BEST at working towards a solution for the high gas prices..

Also, the Liberals presided over the province for 90% of the timeline during the ramping up of this problem, yet said time and time again that nothing was going on in the Vancouver real estate market? They even refused to look into it for YEARS..

Maybe point your indignation where it belongs....

Perhaps you need to read up a bit more, set aside the Liberal fixation, and take note that this is a problem across Canada.

I'll give you an A for effort.

[bob vernon]

All you have to know is how zoning worked during Gordo's time as mayor of Vancouver. I'm sure he, and later Christy, heard all about the guys showing up at casinos with hockey bags of bills and staying in the casino for about 5 minutes and cashing out. 10 years ago about 100 vehicles were shipped from Canada to China annually. It suddenly jumped to 4,000 a year. Did alarm bells go off? No, that was just the usual ringing in Christ's head.

[Vacancyrate]

I prefer the NDP blaming someone.

The Liberals just called everyone in BC racists for suggesting there was something funny going on and pretended that nothing was happening.

The Liberals blamed-it-on-the-racism of anyone that asked questions.

[alanjh595]

I prefer the NDP blaming someone.

The Liberals just called everyone in BC racists for suggesting there was something funny going on and pretended that nothing was happening.

The Liberals blamed-it-on-the-racism of anyone that asked questions.

Where did they say that? I call BS.

[Country plough boy]

Ndp are crime. The only thing does good when ndp are around is crooks. Look at Kelowna thru the 90s

[southy]

I prefer the NDP blaming someone.

The Liberals just called everyone in BC racists for suggesting there was something funny going on and pretended that nothing was happening.

The Liberals blamed-it-on-the-racism of anyone that asked questions.

Pretty strong statement there Vacancyrate … care to back up those words with perhaps a link or two????

[Urbane]

From Rob Shaw on Twitter:

Does anyone else find this money laundering national graph odd? It's from the Maureen Maloney report today.
So BC, w/ its asian gangs, immigration, Hells Angels, OD crisis, insane real estate & luxury car markets... is 4th?!?
Like, what $$ laundering is occurring in the prairies?

[Urban Cowboy]

Hmmmmmmmmmm.............. so Alberta seems to be the hotbed ....................... yet that was an NDP government up until just mere days ago, and registered the highest numbers during NDP rule.

[liisgo]

This has turned into another example of the patheticness of our system with in.
Everyone, every party jumping out like little school kids to point the finger, deflick from participation.
Your Lib. losers, your NDP idiots, your green goofs, their all part of where we are ending up. With all these issues.
You all played a huge, DIRECT part in gas prices, home prices, crime, drugs, homeless, laundering.
And here's the thing, its not that these are little issues that need some work, normal operating issue's. These items have over run our province/country, costing us billions, only getting worse, and no fix will come about, all on your watch.
You all need to be held accountable for it, each party.
But first lets see one of you acknowledge that you caused it... All of you.

[Urban Cowboy]

Given that this is clearly a nationwide problem, seems to me that it would make sense for the feds to address it.

Based on the graph provided, and that the latest data on it is from 2015 the total amount now has to be around the 50 billion mark for the country.

Since the figures are tough to confirm, I'm guessing the true numbers are probably much higher even.

I say scrap the carbon tax, and go with siccing the feds on the money launderers, for the extra spending money they are extracting from us under this guise. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

[hobbyguy]

Money laundering does have an impact. 5% on the price of Vancouver real estate according to the study. However, 5% on $1.2 million 2 bdr condo price average does not really make that much difference in terms of real affordability. It would reduce the price to $1.14 million. Whoopee.

As far as dealing with money laundering, especially in real estate, it is a world wide failure. The estimate I saw is that $1.6 trillion per year is laundered world wide through real estate.

It is a world wide problem that will not get dealt with until the longer standing issue of hidden identity offshore banks is dealt with. I won't hold my breath on that one - there seems to be no will or way to get rid of that longer standing problem. Add to that the use of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

The UK has one idea that may help, but it sure would be met with howls from some quarters here. That is to make real estate agents criminally responsible if they do not report suspicious transactions. However, in order to enforce that it would require a very expensive and large bureaucracy to check real estate transactions - otherwise, with no chance of getting caught, the few unscrupulous agents that enable laundering will just keep doing it - especially as the kick back would go up with the new risk.

In a lot of senses, the pounding away about money laundering in real estate is a deflection in the BC context. Only an international effort will really fix the problem.

[Urban Cowboy]

I agree with the above assessment.

What I don't agree with is the BC NDP using the topic to paint the Liberals as bad, and pin the blame on them, when clearly it's a much bigger issue, and exists everywhere, including that recent NDP province next door to us, where far more money is laundered according to the chart.

If the issue were so easy to address and fix, then why hasn't Horgan done so yet?

Come on BC NDP fix it, or shut your yaps, and concede it's a much bigger deal than even you thought.

[seewood]

Crap, wonder why the NDP forget they were government in the 90's: https://globalnews.ca/news/5215614/mone ... r-journal/


Perhaps why Eby does not want an inquiry.