Taxpayers pay price for summit losses

G8, G20 protests disrupted businesses

More than two years after they caused major disruptions in Toronto and Muskoka, the 2010 G8 and G20 summits continue to cost Canadian taxpayers.

From a strip club to a national airline, dozens of businesses in the two locales received a combined $1.6 million in compensation in the last fiscal year for losses incurred because of the summits, according to figures tabled in the House of Commons on Tuesday.

While this is over and above the more than $800,000 that was handed out in 2010-11, the total is expected to be only the tip of the iceberg; the federal government received more than $11 million in claims.

When it came to payouts, large companies generally made out better than smaller ones.

Porter Airlines received the most compensation of any company at more than $145,000, likely for the impact the G20 summit had on its flights to the Toronto Island airport.

Next was $95,000 for broadcaster Astral Media, whose Astral Media Outdoor subsidiary has a 20-year contract to supply the city of Toronto with its outdoor furniture.

Hundreds of benches, garbage cans and other items were removed by the company for the duration of the G20 Summit to keep them from being used as weapons.

After Porter and Astral Media were real estate company Oxford Properties Group at $88,000; Sears Canada received nearly $77,000; the Toronto Downtown Jazz Society got more than $69,000; and Mountain Equipment Co-op was given $44,000.

On the other end of the spectrum were the Strathcona Hotel, which received $611; handicraft emporium Timbuktu Trading, which was given $777; and Taste of Toronto, which received a cheque for $546.

And then there was Zanzibar Tavern, a landmark strip club featuring a garish sign on Yonge Street in To- ronto that received nearly $6,000 in compensation. Altogether, 144 companies received compensation in fiscal 2011-12, which was in addition to the 38 that were paid in 2010-11.

While the cash will help cover some of the costs borne by companies because of the summits, not everyone is happy with what they ended up receiving.

Parts of Toronto’s Queen Street West looked like a war zone on June 26, 2010, when protesters clashing with police set fire to cruisers and smashed windows and store signs.