$75-million per hour of leadership schmoozing

From Don Martin in the National Post:

"No amount of righteous government bluster about living in post-9/11 protection paranoia, last week’s bank firebombing in Ottawa or the precedent of hosting two back-to-back summits can explain how an $18-million security tab for the G20 in Pittsburgh last September, which involved 4,000 police, must balloon to a billion dollars in Toronto requiring 10,000 cops on the ground.

This is Canada, not Kandahar. In a London that has seen subway and bus terrorist bombings, the official security tab for its G20 gathering last March was $30-million.

Yet one month to the day before the G20 convenes for a dinner and half-day Sunday meeting behind the barricades, the protection tab reportedly surged another $160-million without explanation.

If that’s true, total security costs now surpass $1.1-billion for about 16 hours of actual social and formal meetings at both summits — and that doesn’t include the $100-million budgeted for host country organization and hospitality. At that ferocious spending rate, taxpayers will be on the hook for $75-million per hour of leadership schmoozing."