Security agencies to get more funds, source says
The federal government will increase funds in Tuesday’s budget for Canada’s security agencies as they mount a tighter crackdown on terrorism, the Ottawa Citizen has learned.
Finance Minister Joe Oliver’s first fiscal blueprint, just six months before the next election, will place a heavy emphasis on measures to boost economic growth.
But a source said Sunday the budget will also contain financial measures to match the Conservative government’s policies aimed at protecting the country from terrorists.
Oliver will announce new funds for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).
It’s expected the multi-year funding hike will exceed $100 million.
The money is being allocated as Parliament debates Bill C-51, the controversial anti-terror bill introduced by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s Conservative government earlier this year.
Opposition critics have blasted the government for putting extra work into the hands of those security agencies while leaving them stretched for cash they need to fulfil existing responsibilities.
The government has rejected that charge, saying it has boosted security funds by 30 per cent since Harper came to power in 2006.
However, without a funding increase in this year’s preelection budget, the governing Tories would have been on weak ground.
A source said Sunday that the government’s “foremost responsibility” is to ensure the safety and security of Canadians and defend the country’s sovereignty.
The government believes that Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism — including from homegrown terrorists who are either inspired by or connected to jihadist groups like ISIL.
Last October, terrorism jumped to the top of the political agenda after two attacks — one on a pair of soldiers in Quebec, one of whom was killed, and another two days later, when a gunman killed a soldier guarding the National War Memorial and then died himself in a blaze of gunfire in the halls of Parliament Hill.
The additional federal money being provided to the RCMP, CSIS and CBSA is designed to counter terrorism.
“These funds will provide additional investigative resources to our law enforcement and national security agencies to allow them to keep pace with the evolving threat of terrorism and terrorist financing, in order to continue to protect Canadians,” said the source, who could not be identified.
The government’s anti-terror bill, C-51, has drawn criticism from legal and privacy experts who say it goes too far and violates the Charter rights of Canadians.