BURNABY – The BC Government and Service Employees' Union (BCGEU) was one of the first voices in the province to call for a public inquiry into money laundering in B.C. Monday, the BCGEU's president delivered the union's opening statement to the inquiry it helped create.

"We pushed for this inquiry because the housing affordability crisis, the overdose crisis and criminal money laundering were making our members' communities and workplaces unsafe and unlivable," said Stephanie Smith, BCGEU president. "Our members asked their union to take action, and we did. But getting the Cullen Commission created was just the first step. Our goal now is to make sure that the lived experience of our members – and other working British Columbians – is front and centre in the Commission's work."

The BCGEU is one of only 16 participants granted standing by the Commission. In the union's opening statement, Smith made a series of recommendations for areas the union would like the Commission to investigate and highlighted the union's goals for the Inquiry:

• Get to the truth of how the housing crisis, the overdose crisis and criminal money laundering are connected and how our province arrived at its current state.
• Identify those responsible, and hold them accountable for their actions and inactions.
• Reverse the damage that can be reversed and protect British Columbians from anything like this happening again or happening in different sectors.

"The BCGEU supports everything our current government has done in terms of fact-finding and implementing policies and programs to mitigate the impact of these issues," said Smith. "But the simple fact is, we are where we are because key decision makers and organizations let British Columbians down. We deserve to know how that happened. We deserve to see some accountability. We deserve to feel confident that our province is no longer at risk." 

The BCGEU is one of the largest, most diverse and fastest growing unions in B.C. with more than 80,000 members working in almost every community and economic sector in the province, including the provincial public service, financial services, gaming sector, and frontline community health and social services. 

Read the BCGEU's full statement here.

For more information contact: BCGEU Communications at [email protected]

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