Former minister-in-charge says she wasn't told directly about dirty cash flowing to B.C.'s casinos

The interim leader of the B.C. Liberal party told a provincial inquiry on Thursday that the issue of money laundering in casinos was an "important priority" for the province while she was in charge of gaming, but not the only priority.

Shirley Bond said the government in 2011 was also preoccupied with gang activity, gun violence andcivil forfeiture cases during her timeassolicitor general and minister of public safety under then-premier Christy Clark.

"[Money laundering]was one of many priorities,"Bond told the Cullen Commission during her testimony Thursday."Gaming is a piece of a very large and complex ministry."

Bond is one of several former cabinet ministers appearing before the inquiry this month as the commission turns its focus to the government's actions over the decade-and-a-half thatmoney laundering worsened in B.C.

Bond was the minister in charge of gaming in the province from March 2011 until February 2012.

Over those 11 months, Bond said she never discussed with then-premier Clark reports of millions of dollars in suspicious cash entering casinos being linked to organized crime and money laundering.

She said she was not informedhigh-level players were buying-in at casinos for hundreds of thousands of dollars predominantly in $20 bills, nor was she aware casinosin the Lower Mainland were accepting millions in suspicious cash.

"That was never raised with me directly as minister," said Bond.

Delay in creating task force

Bond defended her record, noting shemade sure the province implementednine of 10recommendations from the 2011 Kroeker report, which looked at stepsB.C. should takecombat money laundering.

But commission lawyer Patrick McGowan pressed Bond onthe delay to act on the report's greatest and final recommendation: thecreation ofa dedicated, cross-agency task force to investigate suspicious activity.

Bond said "public service" staff told her the first nine measures were doablein the short-term and would make a difference. Given the cost and complexity of a task force, she opted to wait and see how the first nine recommendations affected the problem before acting on a team.

TheJoint Illegal Gaming Investigation Team (JIGIT) wasn'tlaunched until 2015. Money laundering had peaked by then, later reports would show, with millions in dirty cash flowing through the province.

Clarktold the public inquiry on Tuesday the 2015 spike was the first she'd heard of the money laundering problem from within her government.

Money laundering has had long-lasting ramifications for the B.C. economy. It'slinked to organized crime andhas been connected to the ongoing provincewideopioid crisisas well as sky-high housing prices across the Lower Mainland.

WATCH |Documents obtained by CBCNews in 2011 showed seniorRCMP investigators warned the province about money laundering in B.C. casinos:

B.C. casino warnings

14 years ago

Duration 3:19

Top-level RCMP officials had warned the solicitor general's office about money laundering at B.C. casinos, the CBC's Eric Rankin reports

More cabinet ministers to come

Former B.C. Liberal cabinet ministers Rich Coleman, Mikede Jong and Kash Heed are scheduled totestify before the inquiry later this month. Attorney General David Ebywill also appear.

A report in 2018 said a "collective systemic failure" hadcleared the way for unwitting casinos to become "laundromats" for proceeds of crimesince the early 2000s, with more than $100 millionlikely cleaned in B.C. overroughly a decade.

The Cullen Commission is examining how B.C. can better address the problem.

Itsfinal report is due Dec. 15.