B.C.’s Attorney General has written the leader of the opposition Liberals asking him to waive cabinet privilege to money laundering documents from the former government.

Dave Eby says he suspects there is next to nothing there but he wants to make sure work to address money laundering is informed with all the information possible.

“If there was research or work that was done for the previous government we do not want to replicate that work. We would like to use it to inform the work we are doing right now. We are asking that they release that. There may be nothing frankly and personally I suspect actually that there is very little. Rich Coleman was in the media and said that they did everything they could to stop money laundering and if that is the case if there is reports, if there is briefing notes, if there is research, if there is draft legislation we would like to access it in order to speed our work along.”

Is there any reason from his perspective that Andrew Wilkinson would say no?

“Well personally I think they would worry about the new government using it politically to hurt the Liberals. Certainly there record on this file was very poor in my opinion. In order to provide them some kind of assurance around that we have agreed, or we have suggested, that we would keep all of those documents confidential. In that context I cannot see why they would not allow us to access that information.”

As for how soon he would like Andrew Wilkinson to respond.

“It would be great if he got back as soon as possible.”

A response is unlikely to come soon from the Liberal leader as Wilkinson is on holidays.

However opposition House Leader Mary Polak has released a statement.

“This is another example of the Attorney General playing politics with a serious issue. His request to release confidential cabinet documents, which was released to media before the opposition had an opportunity to review, will be given the consideration it deserves. A formal response will be made in due course and provided in writing. Instead of playing games with confidential cabinet documents, the Attorney General should focus on implementing the recommendations from the German Report and pursuing charges against those who have broken the law.”

Eby was asked if the NDP are playing politics with this letter.

“Certainly there are politics around this file. I think from my perspective their government did a very bad job of handling money laundering. Regardless of those politics we really want to access any research or work that was done.”

The money laundering investigation is shifting focus to the real estate market after the German report found hundreds of millions of dollars was laundered by organized crime in B.C. casinos.

The letter from Attorney General Dave Eby is in full is below.