Mr. Speaker, I thank the hon. member for giving me the opportunity to talk further about the Olympics, because it is very instructive.
One would think that just having hosted an international gathering of the highest calibre and the highest level of security in February in Canada, when we have already purchased equipment, already trained thousands of personnel, it would give us efficiencies. If we were then holding another international meeting that required specialized high level security of exactly the same magnitude only four or five months later, that the costs of securing the second event would be lower. Canadians do think that.
One would think that the costs for securing the G8, G20 held in June would be lower than other international G8, G20 summits, where they had to create security protocol and buy equipment for the first time. That is another very critical question.
I might point out that the Olympic security costs represented another example of bad fiscal planning by right-wing governments, namely the Conservative government and the Liberal government of Gordon Campbell in British Columbia. They low-balled the security costs in the $170 million-range and again saw the costs escalate to $1 billion. That is bad accounting, bad management, bad planning and bad priorities by right-wing governments in our country. That is what it tells Canadians.