Feds Say $1.3B Summits Were A Bargain

Government officials say the G8 and G20 summits in June were a bargain at $1.3 billion.

The “overarching consideration” in putting together the summits was “finding economies of scale,” chief organizer Peter McGovern told MPs at a committee hearing Tuesday.

The $930 million that was earmarked for security was necessary to assure the world that the summits would go off without a hitch, said former spy chief Ward Elcock, who oversaw security at the meetings.

“In terms of putting in place adequate security for a meeting of virtually all the senior government leaders for most of the world, if you don’t provide security for it, that’s a very tempting soft target,” Elcock told MPs.

“Many leaders will simply not come to a meeting at which adequate security does not exist.”

The full $930 million will probably not all be spent, Elcock said, adding that all the bills have not yet been finalized.

“I would expect it to be less,” based on the bills he has seen so far.

By holding the G8 at a resort in rural Huntsville, Ont., the government had to pay high fixed costs to set up the infrastructure, temporary accommodation, telecommunications and transportation services the summit needed, Elcock said.

And by holding two summits at different sites, authorities had to secure hundreds of kilometres of highway, as well as make sure alternative transportation was available in case of bad weather, he said.

Overtime, accommodation and transportation for 10,000 officers ran up the bill too, Elcock said.

Using officers from the Canadian Forces instead of the more expensive Mounties was not an option, since it would have been “entirely and utterly inappropriate” to tell military forces to deal with civilians.

Most of the remaining $1.3-billion pricetag for the two summits was spent by the Foreign Affairs Department, for hospitality and logistics, said McGovern, who headed the government’s Summit Management Office.

He said the two summits were actually four, since a youth meeting and a business meeting were held on the fringes of the main gatherings. The four top-level meetings required 29 preparatory events that took place across Canada.

McGovern stressed that he wasn’t just dealing with 20 countries. He was hosting 20 leaders, plus their delegations, plus media, plus 30 additional delegations from countries or international organizations that Prime Minister Stephen Harper had invited.

Since the two meetings were held just 250 kilometres apart — in Huntsville, Ont., and Toronto — Ottawa was able to spend efficiently by using the same contractors and planners for both events, McGovern argued.

“Although the summits were held in two locations, the advantage of choosing Toronto and Huntsville as hosts was that the contracts for goods and services could serve both locations given their relative proximity,” McGovern said. “It also meant that my office did not need to double up the request-for-proposal process.”

Opposition members were not buying it.

New Democrat MP Pat Martin said the county is still reeling at the “irresponsible and reckless spending” at a time when government budgets are constrained. He pointed to government funding for a fake lake at the media centre, as well as millions spent on paving roads and beautifying towns in the Muskokas where no leader ever set foot.

Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff accused the government of flagrant overspending on summits that produced little foreign policy.

“This is a genuine, bona fide scandal,” he told reporters.

“We could’ve kept it small, we could’ve kept it modest, we could’ve kept it focussed on results. Instead it became this kind of gigantic display of personal vanity by the prime minister in which you spend $1.2 billion over 72 hours, there are no substantive results. Can anybody tell me what the G8/G20 achieved?”

Government spending documents show that $930 million was earmarked for security, and about $250 million for the Foreign Affairs Department. Additional millions were set aside in the name of the summits for infrastructure and strengthening border control.

The government has provided the Liberals with details showing it spent more than $10 million for hotel accommodation for the RCMP, more than $5 million to rent vehicles for the Mounties; $4.4 million for the notorious security fence, $1.4 million on communications “cabling;” and $439,000 on portable toilets.

Then there was $14,000 on glow sticks and $85,000 for snacks at Toronto’s swank Park Hyatt hotel.