Fakelakegate: Canada accused of not living up to its claim of fiscal prudence for summits

Canada derided for plan to build costly fake lake

TORONTO — Canada’s recent announcement that it is spending a mind-boggling $900 million to protect the two global summits it’s hosting this month was bad enough.

Now, planners of the 72-hour diplomatic jamboree — the G-8 summit of industrialized democracies and the broader G-20 that includes major advanced and developing economies — are running into howls of derision for trying to showcase Canada’s tourist appeal by building a media center that includes an artificial lake with canoes, trees, deck chairs and a fake dock.

Does Canada, whose charms and natural beauty have hardly gone unnoticed by the outside world, need to spend nearly $2 million on a theme park of itself? And does that park need to go up in Toronto, just blocks from a Great — and real — Lake? Many Canadians would agree with opposition politician Jack Layton’s verdict: “Fakelakegate.”

These annual summits that rotate around the world are never cheap, and Canada’s logistical challenge is particularly great, since the G-20 are meeting in Toronto while the G-8 will gather 140 miles (225 kilometers) to the north, in Huntsville, Ontario.

Supporters say it’s worth it considering that the G-20 countries control more than 85 percent of the world’s money, the terrorism threat is real, and the leaders are confronted with a European debt crisis that could morph into another global recession.

The more than 3,000 journalists expected at the June 25-27 events can’t all fit into picturesque, tourism-friendly Huntsville, and most will cover the proceedings from Toronto, on Lake Ontario. The display called “The Canadian Corridor” is supposed to make up for what the media are missing by being shut out of Huntsville.

But Mark Holland, another opposition lawmaker, says it sets the wrong example.

“This is supposed to be a meeting about dealing with the international debt crisis. We’re supposed to be leading the world in showing austerity and we invite them to our doorsteps to sit around a $2 million dollar fake lake. I mean it’s pretty ridiculous,” he said.

Other legislators reached for a headline. “The government’s half-baked fake lake takes the cake! What a mistake,” Rodger Cuzner said in Parliament, to raucous laughter.

“The billion dollar boondoggle is ballooning,” said Layton. “And get this: we’ve got a government here that has to create an artificial lake when Canada has more lakes than just about any other country in the world. It’s the taxpayer that’s going to end up on the bottom of the fake lake.”

Accused of failing to live up to their own claim of fiscal prudence, the ruling Conservatives went into damage control Tuesday, telling reporters that the lake was actually just a reflecting pond, would cost less than $60,000 and is part of a larger exhibit showcasing Canada.

“These aren’t expenditures for a fake lake but rather for a pavilion to promote Canadian tourism,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper told Parliament. “Thousands of people will be our guests from all over the world and we intend to promote tourism.”

Harper said the vast majority of the costs are for security and that these are in line with other summits.

Pat Flood, spokeswoman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said Canada spent $300 million Canadian on securing the 2002 G-8 summit it hosted, and noted Canada is hosting two summits back-to-back this year.

By comparison, the stated amount spent by Pittsburgh on security for last September’s G-20 summit was $12.4 million. London’s stated amount for the G-20 last year was $10.9 million.

Conservative lawmaker Phil McColeman quoted a top security official as saying that other countries have not been as transparent as Canada about expenditures.

Ward Elcock, in charge of the meetings’ security, said countries account for things in different ways and that in other nations much of the cost might be borne by their defense departments.

“It is an enormous sum of money but that’s what it costs,” Elcock told The Associated Press. Elcock said 19,000 security personnel are involved in the meetings, including 2,500 soldiers and 2,400 private security officers.

The government has said $450 million Canadian (US$427 million) will be spent on the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, much of it on overtime. A massive accommodations facility is being built for them in Huntsville, and officers also will be housed in hotels in Toronto.

The government has said it will provide a break down of the costs after the summits. Canada’s parliamentary budget officer is investigating.

Professors at the University of Toronto were divided.

Alan Alexandroff, Co-Director of the G20 research Group at the University of Toronto, while defending the need for G-20 meetings on economic policy, said most of the key decisions on reforming the global financial system will be made at a G-20 summit in Seoul in October, and that the Toronto gathering is considered just a warmup.

Nelson Wiseman said the costs might make other countries think twice about hosting the summits. “It’s crazy,” he said. “I don’t think it was closely monitored.”

But Wendy Dobson, a former government finance official, said the threats justified the cost. “A billion here or there given the possible threats is not something that should be focused on,” she said.