Madam Chair, security costs are always an issue at international events. They certainly were at the Olympics. Costs are very high when these events are hosted, either here or around the world. I understand projected costs for the summer Olympics in the U.K., for instance, are already somewhat north of €2 billion and probably going up. We believe the federal government has a responsibility in the sharing of those costs. We certainly took that responsibility seriously with the Olympics.
The last time there was a meeting here in Ottawa, for instance, with President Bush, the President of Mexico, and the Prime Minister, there were considerable costs to the City of Ottawa, and the federal government shared the responsibility there. So on the specifics, I'd have to say to my colleague that I'll leave it to our public safety minister to decide what the best approach to that is, some kind of a bond issue or how it's done.
The goal is going to be that there are no damages, and to have security in place so that would be the final result. That's always the goal. It's unfortunate in a society like Canada's, which is very open, where we encourage robust demonstration and robust public displays of either support or lack of support for any particular issue, that there always are people who abuse that and move to violent levels. That's always disappointing. I think whatever cause they're promoting, once they move into the area of violence, they lose sympathy they might have had. Members may have seen and noticed that on the first Saturday of the Olympics in Vancouver, there was a group who masked their faces and were particularly intimidating and violent. It was actually the crowd itself, many of whom were protesters, who pushed back against that.