Government Operations Committee on Nov. 4th, 2010

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

So you had, what, six months to prepare?

[Chief William Blair]

Six or seven months. But let me also tell you that we were aware, of course, for almost two years that the G-8 was being contemplated in Ontario and that it would be held in Huntsville. In our experience, when such an event is held, even in a rural area in Canada or elsewhere in the world, there are impacts on the major urban centres nearby. Usually that's where the demonstrations take place.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

So you'd already been preparing for the G-8. You had only a few months to ramp up for the G-20.

[Chief William Blair]

We had been working with the integrated security unit in anticipation of some impact of the G-8 in Toronto.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Sure. The airport—

[Chief William Blair]

We then began to get some indications that a G-20 may come to Canada first. Then there was some suggestion it may come to Ontario.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Did you have any role or any...? Did you give any advice in terms of selecting where the G-20 would be held, in Toronto, or should it have been—or was that decision made by others? Did you get an opportunity to voice an opinion on (a) whether it should be held in Toronto or (b) where it should be held?

[Chief William Blair]

Mr. Elcock of the summit management unit came to Toronto, I believe it was in January, although I don't have the precise date. He came and met with me and some of my personnel and indicated that the government was contemplating bringing the G-20 to Toronto. He asked if we could and would be willing to assist in providing the security for that event.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

In your opinion, would there have been a significant difference had the summit, such as the G-20, been held in a different location, a more remote location, a more contained location than in downtown Toronto?

[Chief William Blair]

It's not just a security issue. There are tens of thousands of people who come to a G-20 event, and accommodating those people...for example, you may have 20,000 attendees. There were nearly 4,000 accredited media. There were several hundred additional media who were not accredited but were present. As a matter of fact, there were many what we would call “citizen journalists” out on our streets. We also had large contingents from the various government bodies and business-related bodies that were attending the summit. Frankly, there are very few places in Canada that have the hotel capacity to house these individuals. So I think that was a consideration in addition to security.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Were you consulted on the decision to have it in downtown Toronto?

[Chief William Blair]

Mr. Elcock simply asked us about our capacity as a police service to assist in providing security for that event.

[Siobhan Coady, Liberal, St. John's South—Mount Pearl, NL]

Okay.

I want to go back. You did talk about some of the assets you were able to acquire during the G-8/G-20, and you talked about having some infrastructure for the telecommunications and some of the other purchases. Do you still have those assets, and how are you disposing of those assets?

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Chief Blair, you have about 30 seconds to answer that question.

Thank you.

[Chief William Blair]

For some of the assets that we are keeping, I'm paying 50¢ on the dollar. But I didn't have anything. The City of Toronto did not give me any additional money for the security of the G-20. We were doing it within our existing budget, and quite frankly, there wasn't a lot of room there. So most of the equipment that was acquired solely for the G-20 is being returned to the RCMP.

[The Chair, Liberal, John McKay]

Madame Bourgeois, for eight minutes, please.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Mr. Blair, good morning and thank you for being here.

I listened to your testimony yesterday at the Standing Committee on Public Accounts. A couple of questions came to mind immediately, because the attempt to secure information didn't go far enough.

First of all, I would like to know who was in charge of coordinating security in Toronto. Was it you?

[Chief William Blair]

On coordinating the security, the security planning for the G-20 event was done as part of a joint operation, led by the RCMP, in the integrated security unit. But within the planning for that event, there were a number of different areas within the summit site that were designated the primary responsibility.... For example, where the summit was taking place, in the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, in the region where the hotels...what might be considered the central security zone, with security and responsibility for the summit site and the summit participants, the internationally protected persons, the primary responsibility was with the RCMP.

There was also an interdiction zone immediately outside of that central zone, which was again the responsibility of the RCMP. Outside that restricted area, within the downtown core of Toronto, that area was primarily the responsibility of the Toronto Police Service. But it was done in an integrated fashion. And what I mean by that is within our major incident command centre, there were representatives of all of the police services participating, including the other emergency services—our fire, our ambulance, the military, and others—who were all working in a very integrated and collaborative way to provide security for the event.

But the primary responsibility for policing the streets of Toronto was my responsibility. The primary responsibility for the security of the summit site was that of the RCMP.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

I'm sure you can understand that, because of all the work that was done, it is difficult for us to ascertain what your particular responsibilities were.

You are in charge of a municipal police force. During the G-20, other police forces such as the OPP and the RCMP were also on site, as you mentioned. At this point, we are having trouble assessing budgets that were requested, budgets that you needed as the municipal police force.

In answer to a question from my colleague, you stated that the City of Toronto did not provide you with any extra funding, other than what you have in your municipal police budget, to handle any additional expenses incurred as a result of the G-20. Is that correct?

[Chief William Blair]

That's correct.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

That's correct. So, in your capacity as the municipal police force, you did some budget planning.

[Chief William Blair]

Yes. We worked very closely within the integrated security unit and with Public Safety Canada to establish a budget of what our costs would be. I have to continue policing the rest of the city, so I have to maintain a business continuity of operations for the rest of the city. We therefore had to bring in additional personnel. We cancelled their leave. We had them work on their days off. We also asked other police services to send personnel to help us, and we created a budget to pay those costs. Some of the infrastructure and equipment costs we would require were very specific to providing security for the summit.

Let me also tell you that there was perhaps not as clear a delineation of responsibilities as I may have indicated, because we share a certain responsibility--the security of internationally protected persons, for example. We work together with the RCMP. For the transfer to the motorcades to and from the airport, we were working in partnership with the RCMP, the OPP, and Peel Regional Police Service. This was very much an integrated operation, but the primary leads for the security of the summit were the RCMP.

We had 22 different police services out on the streets of Toronto, but the primary responsibility was for the Toronto Police Service because those are our streets.

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

That means that the City of Toronto will incur additional costs as a result of the G-20 summit. It will automatically have to ask that those expenses be reimbursed for the G-20. To whom will that request be made?

[Chief William Blair]

It will turn to the federal government. Our cost arrangement--

[Diane Bourgeois, Bloc, Terrebonne—Blainville, QC]

The federal government or the RCMP?

Unless I misunderstood, in terms of the entire budget operation — even though you worked on it — ultimately, it was the RCMP that provided money to the Toronto Police Force and was involved in preparing the budget for the G-20.