Evidence of meeting #33 for Government Operations and Estimates in the 40th Parliament, 3rd session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was costs.
A recording is available from Parliament.
Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Off the top, I don't have it with me, but I can get back to you on that.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
We'll take that as an undertaking, Mr. Séguin, to respond to Mr. Davies' questions.
Thank you, Mr. Davies.
Mr. Regan.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
In response to Mr. Warkentin's comment, I have the government's response to an order paper question from the Liberal Party. A line here says, “temporary accommodations facilities, quarry site; Fowler Construction”. That's who it was rented from, I presume. It says, “License for use of location; “$4,082,000” etc., so $4.1 million.
The news release to which my colleague refers says, “Order paper documents obtained by the Liberals reveal that the Conservatives spent $4.1 million to rent a quarry near the site of the G8 summit”. The point is that my colleague is inaccurate in what he's said.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
As enthusiastic as one might be to engage Mr. Warkentin, the witnesses are at that end of the table.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
I'm anxious to talk to them about this.
Mr. Chair, I am going to ask the witnesses about this question.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Okay, and I will hope that....
Is there a point of order, Mr. Warkentin, or are you just interrupting?
Conservative
Chris Warkentin Conservative Peace River, AB
I just want to clarify that it was a different press release and I'll be happy to get it for the honourable member.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal John McKay
Okay.
Between the two of you, you can have your undertakings between each other.
Mr. Regan.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chief Superintendent MacNeil, am I correct in understanding that it would cost about $4.1 million to rent this and that the government or the RCMP added value to this property and gave it back?
Perhaps Mr. Séguin would answer that.
Chief Financial and Administrative Officer, Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The actual lease arrangement would have been handled by Public Works and Government Services Canada. I don't have the details on that.
Liberal
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
I suppose you would have had different numbers there during that period. The biggest number obviously would have been on the weekend of the G-8?
C/Supt Alphonse MacNeil
Yes. We may have had them in a little earlier than the 15th as well, but I know we started feeding them on the 18th.
October 28th, 2010 / 9:35 a.m.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
I feel bad for them those first three days, my goodness. I'm a little concerned.
But as I understand it, the $4.1 million was just to lease the site, right? You must have had other costs. Your costs for trailers, etc., were in addition to that?
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Because when I look at that, if there were 4,500 officers around that area, as you've talked about, using this, it is about $1,000 per person. Again, it seems like a lot when most of them were there for a fairly short period--$4 million--and there are other costs we'd like to know about.
But let me move on for a second here. Other summits--for instance, the Francophonie and others we've heard about from the House of Commons in the last few days--have achieved security at 2% of the cost of this summit. Some are often around $30 million. Of course, our costs were due to a number of things, including the decision to have two sites. What other decisions caused this high cost and who made those decisions?
C/Supt Alphonse MacNeil
Well, I guess I would go back to my first answer, when I was asked how we planned. We take what we're given, the sites we're given that we know are going to be utilized, and we plan our security packages around that. The total cost was what it cost us to plan that security.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
But besides the decision to go with two different sites, were there other decisions that caused the cost to escalate?
C/Supt Alphonse MacNeil
I'm not sure. I'm sure that in two years there were many, many decisions taken over where meetings would be held and things of that nature, but I can't comment on that.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Thank you.
Let me turn to Superintendent Charlebois of the OPP. Perhaps you or Ms. Davis can answer this. What was your budget number agreed upon in advance of the event? Let's start with that.
Supt Tim Charlebois
Thank you very much. We negotiated a budget ahead of time of approximately $84 million for the event.
Liberal
Geoff Regan Liberal Halifax West, NS
Have all your bills come in in terms of suppliers or subcontractors that you had in relation to that?