Mr. Elcock, I'm sorry to interrupt you, but time is ticking away.
You said that you did not know around how much the organization of the G8 and G20 summits might cost. But you already had experience with the Olympic Games, which were not that long before the G8 and G20.
I believe there must be some similarities between security for the Olympic Games and security for the G20. I feel we should be able to apply the experience from one event to organizing a good deal of the other event. It is important to have an idea of what the costs might be. You cannot give an envelope with a blank slip inside, without any figures at the bottom, for this type of operation. You must at least have an idea and act as administrators.
You really are administrators. So I cannot understand how you decided to call in the provincial police force, which costs four times more than the Canadian army, and to build communications towers because there was no other way to communicate. I just cannot wrap my brain around the fact that you held 29 planning meetings to come to the conclusion that you were in the dark and would just play it by ear.
That means that you used Canadians’ money haphazardly and freely. The envelope was open and you used it telling yourselves that it would cost what it cost. You had no budget forecasts prepared. There was $230 million and we're talking about $179 million. We are at $400 million now, but we don't know what the rough total is because you are unable to tell us.