Despite early estimates that the combined 2010 G8 and G20 summits in Huntsville and Toronto would cost $1.1billion to host, according to the auditor-general, the final bill ended up being “only” $663.9-million. Of that total, $509-million was to provide security for the twin summits.
It’s a figure worth recalling, after last Tuesday’s announcement that six so-called “ringleaders” of the violence that marred the streets of Toronto have agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges under a plea bargain agreement struck between their defence lawyers and the Crown. Each of these individuals was subjected to prolonged investigation by undercover Ontario Provincial Police officers, and was arrested once the summit got underway. Charges against 11 others have been dropped. Given the cost of securing the summit, and the rather anti-climactic outcome of the legal proceedings against those at least partially responsible for the lawlessness, it’s reasonable to wonder if these six guilty pleas to relatively minor charges were worth the roughly $84million dollars of security each verdict required (and that doesn’t even include the costs to the court system to prosecute the case).
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