PM’s personal security costs double in 8 years
OT TAWA — The cost of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s RCMP personal security team has more than doubled since he took office, according to records obtained by Postmedia News.
RCMP numbers, obtained under access to information legislation, show the annual operating budget of the Prime Minister Protection Detail (PMPD) has increased 122 per cent between 2006 and 2014 — to almost $20 million annually.
The PMPD is responsible for the security of the prime minister and his family in Canada and abroad, and protecting official residences, including 24 Sussex Drive.
Armed RCMP officers, usually wearing suits and dark sunglasses, travel with the prime minister wherever he goes, including on foreign trips.
When Harper became prime minister in 2006, the annual operating budget for the Prime Minister Protection Detail was approximately $8.8 million.
During Harper’s eight years in office, the PMPD budget has soared to more than $19.6 million for the current 2013-14 fiscal year ending in a few weeks, according to RCMP figures. Some of the cost increases can be attributed to protecting Harper’s wife, Laureen, and their children, Ben and Rachel.
Yet, spending on the prime minister’s security team has increased about 25 per cent in the last year alone and 60 per cent the last two years, at the same time the government has cut billions of dollars in federal spending and laid off thousands of federal employees.
The RCMP said Monday that security costs vary from one year to another depending on factors such as threat assessments, type and number of operational requirements, accommodations and fuel. The operating budget covers salaries (including overtime), training, travel and other costs, RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Lucy Shorey said in an email.
The cost and management of the prime minister’s security detail have generated significant controversy in recent years. Taxpayers paid more than $1 million for the government to ship the prime minister’s armour-plated limousines to India for Harper’s official visit to the country in November 2012.