City of Powell River’s committee of the whole received a letter on money laundering and will send the matter to staff for a response.
At the committee meeting on Tuesday, February 4, a letter from John Chan was introduced, asking for council to develop a policy.
Mayor Dave Formosa said his suggestion was that staff provide Chan an appropriate answer and reply. Formosa said he’d had a chat with chief administrative officer Russell Brewer and staff is prepared to draft a response.
Councillor Maggie Hathaway said her response is that there is no evidence of money laundering going on in the community.
“I wouldn’t want to create some sort of policy without a little more information from the individual that wrote the letter,” said Hathaway.
Councillor George Doubt said he agreed with the mayor with regard to forwarding the information to staff for an appropriate response.
“We wouldn’t be the only city council thinking about that,” said Doubt. “I’ve been looking around at what other city councillors have been doing. I found a newspaper article and the City of Vancouver is apparently working on a policy of not accepting cash payments of more than $10,000. I don’t know if we’ve ever had a cash payment of more than $10,000 in the City of Powell River, but I think it’s worth thinking about it.”
Doubt said he knows there is a commission looking into money laundering in the province right now and it is definitely not at a conclusion phase. He said he did not think a report would be written until April 2021.
“Maybe we can talk to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities and see what they suggest,” added Doubt.
Councillor Jim Palm said he agreed with Hathaway regarding this matter.
“This individual recently foisted some comments on Facebook about a friend of mine and I certainly didn’t appreciate that,” said Palm. “When he [Chan] was called on it he quickly retracted his Facebook comments.”
Chan’s letter stated the BC commission on money laundering reported that 7.6 billion dollars in dirty money worked its way through BC last year. Chan listed a number of indicators and said these indicators cut close to the bone and raise questions about City of Powell River and many of its transactions in recent years.
“What mechanisms are in place to ensure dirty money is not being laundered here?” he asked in his letter. “We must exercise due diligence in ensuring that no criminality is involved in any municipal transactions.”
To ensure no dirty money is permeating into the community, Chan called on city councillors to conduct a proper discourse on the matter and develop a prudent anti-money laundering policy and protocol to review and approve any ongoing and future projects/partnerships/transactions of the city involving any offshore or third party funding and investments.
“The adopted policy and protocol should and must be applied not only to the city but also to all the arm-length agencies or subsidiaries of the City of Powell River,” stated Chan.
He added that the money laundering commission will be holding public meetings across the province and he strongly recommends the city consult with the commission and the general public in its policy development process, and adopt its final anti-money laundering prevention policy/protocol accordingly.
