During the first nine months of this fiscal year, the RCMP spent $2.5 million on security for MPs. If spending continues at the same pace, the cost of MPs’ security for this fiscal year could hit $3.4 million — almost double what it cost a year earlier.
Over fiscal 2022/23, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) spent $1.8 million to protect MPs, up from $1.3 million the year before.
The figures obtained from the RCMP do not include the cost of protecting the prime minister. They also don’t include spending by other bodies that also provide protection for Canada’s 338 members of Parliament, such as local police services, the Parliamentary Protective Service and the House of Commons.
The House of Commons has also taken steps to increase security for MPs but has not said how much it has cost.
While the cost of protecting MPs has been rising, it’s still a fraction of the more than $30 million a year it has cost to protect Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family over the previous two fiscal years.
It’s 10 cents a year per Canadian.
Say what you want about their corruption and incompetency, by all means! But the cost to prevent/deter a radical opponent from harming some of our highest government officials is minimal at this point.
I know a lot of folks have good reason to despise some MPs, but do you really want some sort of January 6th insurrection event? If you do, that’s a good argument for everyone else to pitch in their dime.
440 dollars per MP/month
Honestly that sounds like a bargain. I don’t think 440 buys a lot of security.
tbf, my American opinion is that we do need to pay to protect the safety of our politicians if we want them to have the courage to stand up to entrenched power. Otherwise its just too easy to cow them. Just because we believe in throwing them out via elections doesn’t mean everyone agrees with that method.
Say that to the politicians over the decades that were murdered because they supported social progress. You can’t run a city/province/country when you need to be worried about being shot or stabbed constantly.
3.4 million is literally peanuts to the system as a whole. Of course the cost is going up because aside from inflation and wage increases you still gotta factor in the increase in crazy folks.
Skimping on security seems really stupid right now. There are probably a fair few Canadians who would like to do certain MPs harm… not to mention India has been doing political assassinations.
Must be all those left-wingers who are threatening MPs. it certainly isn’t coming from the respectful, open-minded folks on the right.
Damn, that was my comment.
Excuse me… Not all of us on the left are like that!
/s
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Former public safety minister Marco Mendicino said the rising price tag reflects a change in the “threat environment” since the pandemic and the Ottawa convoy protest.
In August 2022, after Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland was verbally harassed during an event in Grande Prairie, Alta., Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said that he had arranged for private security for his family.
“My wife has received so much horrific material directly to her social media account that we have had to hire a private security firm to protect our family against all of that abuse,” Poilievre said during a leadership campaign stop.
“Mr. Blanchet has occasionally benefited from RCMP services, notably during the 2021 election campaign,” she said, adding that most of the party’s “specific” requests for security protection “are refused.”
He pointed to a recent incident which saw protesters upset with Canada’s position on the Israel-Hamas war gather outside Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly’s home in Montreal.
Pierre-Yves Bourduas, a former deputy commissioner of the RCMP and president of P-Y Safety Management, said Mounties are dealing with a threat environment very different from the one that existed only a few years ago.
The original article contains 1,161 words, the summary contains 188 words. Saved 84%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
