B.C.’s Attorney General and the federal minister of Organized Crime Reduction have wrapped their meeting and are promising to work closely to tackle money laundering.

Dave Eby says Peter German, who is leading second phase into money laundering this time in housing and real estate, needs help from the federal government to get a handle on the scope of the problem and how to address it.

“It will be very difficult to say with any certainty the volume of transactions but we do know it is a very serious problem. All indications are there are many red flags that we have a serious issue in our real estate market that is connected to what was taking place in the casinos.”

Federal minister Bill Blair echoed Eby’s sentiment.

“Organized crime does not share their spreadsheets with us. They do not give us precise details.”

Eby says there has been a change in the last 24 hours to how the RCMP are treating Peter German and his probe.

“Within the last 24 hours we have seen a marked change in the approach of the RCMP to Dr. German’s inquiries. They have reached out to set up a meeting and advised they will be providing intelligence to him to assist him and his work. We have seen a significant shift in the last 24 hours.”

Federal minister Bill Blair is promising more action to come to crack down on money laundering but wouldn’t dive into specifics.

“I can tell you we are looking at a number of different measures that the province is recommending that they said will be helpful to, first of all, to make it more difficult to commit this crime, more likely to be detected in this crime, and more likely to facilitate successful prosecutions.”

Eby says he is satisfied Bill Blair and the federal government get the importance of this issue and will work with B.C. to address it.