The cost to protect the prime minister has shot up to more than $30 million a year
CBC
The cost to Canadians of protecting the prime minister and his family shot up over the last two fiscal years to its highest level in two decades, an analysis by CBC News reveals.
The cost of RCMP protection for Canada's prime ministers has been rising over the past two decades and experts expect it to get even more expensive in the future.
It cost more than $30 million annually in each of the last two fiscal years to protect Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his family. In 2003/04, it cost only $10.4 million to protect Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and his successor Paul Martin.
According to the Bank of Canada's inflation calculator, $10.4 million in 2003 would now be worth $15.9 million.
The RCMP says a number of things can influence the cost of protecting a prime minister and their family.
"Security costs can vary depending on many different factors," Sgt. Kim Chamberland said in a written response to questions from CBC News.
"These include domestic and global threat risk, the number of people travelling, the level of activity, the number of locations attended, type and number of political obligations, as well as technological advancements, and elements dictated by economic factors such as cost of travel, accommodations and fuel."
The cost of protecting the prime minister dipped sharply in 2020/21 as the COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a standstill. It then shot up to $30.9 million in 2021/22 from $23.3 million in 2019/20 – an increase of 32.3 per cent in two years.
Chamberland said the rise in costs was the result of an increase in the prime minister's movements after the pandemic, coupled with a pay increase for RCMP officers.
The 2021/22 fiscal year covered the 2021 federal election — which happened a little over a year after armed forces reservist Corey Hurren crashed a pickup truck containing firearms into the gates of Rideau Hall and went looking for Trudeau.
In 2022/23, protecting the Trudeaus cost $32.5 million — an average of $2.7 million a month. RCMP protection for the prime minister and his family cost an average of $2.6 million per month over the first five months of the current fiscal year.
While it now costs more to protect Trudeau than his predecessors, much of the increase in protection costs over the past 20 years happened while Stephen Harper was prime minister.
In 2006/07, the first full year that Harper was in office, protection for the prime minister and his family cost $10.5 million. In 2014/15 — Harper's last complete year in office — protecting him and his family cost the RCMP $23 million.
The analysis by CBC News, based on figures tabled in Parliament or released through access to information to Thompson Rivers University assistant professor Matt Malone, only includes the cost of RCMP protection. It does not include any costs incurred by Parliament, government departments or other Canadian security services to protect prime ministers and their families.
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