Civics Scrapbook

OTTAWA — The tab for security for the G8 and G20 summits has swelled to $834 million, according to government estimates released Tuesday.


The government had originally projected security costs of $179.4 million, but the estimates, tabled in Parliament, revealed an additional $654.9 million.


The added spending is to be split mainly between the RCMP, the Public Safety Department and National Defence.


The G20 will be held in late June in Toronto, while the community of Huntsville, Ont., will host the G8.


The spending estimates said the extra funding will be used to "design, plan, co-ordinate and implement security operations for the summits; provide the RCMP and its security partners with accommodation facilities for the G8 and G20 summits; procure information technology and portable communications assets; work with federal, provincial and municipal security partners responsible for providing summit security; and ensure the safekeeping of all International Protected Persons attending the summits."


The RCMP will receive an additional $321.5 million, Public Safety will get $262.6 million and National Defence will receive $$63.1 million. The remaining $6.7 million will be split among others.


When the government revealed its initial estimate of almost $180 million earlier this year, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation said the that the cost of "lavish" events should be curtailed, considering Canada's economic picture.


The summits are held annually for world leaders to discuss topics of global concern ranging from terrorism to the economy.


The anticipated security cost is expected to rival the amount estimated to have been spent on security for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.


Christine Csversko, a spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews, said the final bill could reach almost $1 billion.


"As we have always stated, overall costs will be finalized following the completion of the summits," she said. "However, based on a medium level threat assessment, we've budgeted up to $930 million for security."


Csversko said that Canada intends to spend what it takes to ensure safety.


"Global security begins at home," she said in an email. "As hosts of the G-8 and G-20 summits, we will be prepared to respond to any possible situation or threat. And we will take all measures necessary to ensure Canadians, delegates and international visitors remain safe."


http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/canada/security+cost+hits+million/3068834/story.html

WASHINGTON – More U.S. forces are serving in Afghanistan than in Iraq, the Pentagon said Monday, a first since the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq and a reflection of the new primacy of the nine-year Afghan war.

Using figures collected Saturday, the Pentagon says 94,000 U.S. forces are in Afghanistan and 92,000 in Iraq. The numbers are expected to rise in Afghanistan and fall in Iraq as the Obama administration shifts focus to what it has called the more important conflict.

President Barack Obama celebrated what he called the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq during a commencement address Saturday to West Point cadets. At the same time, he predicted tough fighting in Afghanistan.

Obama had campaigned on a quick end to the Iraq war, which he opposed, and an expansion of the conflict in Afghanistan, which he said mattered more.

"As we end the war in Iraq ... we are pressing forward in Afghanistan," Obama said Saturday.

"There will be difficult days ahead. We will adapt, we will persist, and I have no doubt that together with our Afghan and international partners, we will succeed in Afghanistan."

U.S. forces in Afghanistan will reach roughly 98,000 later this summer — a record — on Obama's orders.

At the height of the Iraq war in 2006 and 2007, the United States had between 130,000 and 172,000 forces fighting there.

For more than a year U.S. forces have rarely engaged in combat in Iraq, but troop levels have remained high in part as a hedge against violence surrounding Iraqi elections.

All U.S. combat forces are scheduled to leave Iraq by September and the United States and Iraq have agreed that no U.S. forces will remain in the country by 2012.

The White House says the plans to deploy 98,000 troops in Afghanistan do not represent an absolute ceiling, but few expect Obama to approve any large escalation beyond that number. He has pledged to begin bringing U.S. forces home from Afghanistan in July 2011.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100524/ap_on_go_ot/us_us_afghanistan_iraq

BERLIN – As another difficult round of climate talks approached, the United Nations urged rich countries Tuesday to live up to their promises of help for poor nations in the fight against global warming.

Outgoing U.N. climate chief Yvo de Boer said that, to make headway toward a global climate deal, industrialized nations need to come up with the $30 billion in aid they have promised for the next three years.

Also, negotiators need to focus on a "concrete and realistic goal" for the next major U.N. climate conference in Cancun, Mexico, in December, he said.

"Cancun can deliver if promises of help are kept and if promises to compromise are honored in the negotiations," de Boer said.

Negotiators from around the world plan to meet May 31 in Bonn for two weeks of expert-level talks on the sketchy draft of a new international climate treaty that would take effect after 2012.

De Boer said the session could "significantly advance that text," but stressed that "higher political guidance is required to find ways forward."

The talks come about six months after the U.N. climate conference in Copenhagen. Many environmentalists and political leaders had hoped that summit would produce a breakthrough on fighting global warming, but it came up only with a nonbinding political declaration, the so-called Copenhagen Accord.

That included the $30 billion pledge by industrialized countries for the years 2010-2012 to help poor nations fight climate change and cope with its effects, including droughts or floods.

De Boer said that promise needs to be met to build trust.

"Times are harsh, especially in Europe, but $10 billion a year for three years from all industrialized countries is not an impossible call," he said.

"If developing countries are given the ways and means to act on all aspects of mitigation and adaptation, it will establish firm ground for bigger ambition."

De Boer announced earlier this year that he will quit by July 1. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has appointed Costa Rican climate expert Christiana Figueres to succeed him.

De Boer has made it clear that he does not expect a comprehensive treaty in Cancun. Instead, he now talks only of an "operational architecture" he thinks can be finalized there.

"There is a growing consensus on what that first goal can be — namely a full, operational architecture to implement effective, collective climate action," he said Tuesday.

In Copenhagen, negotiators agreed that global warming must be limited to less that 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) compared to preindustrial times. However, the individual pledges by nations around the world to cut their greenhouse gases aren't yet ambitious enough to meet that goal, de Boer said.

Industrialized nations also promised they would shore up their aid to poor nations from the initial $10 billion a year to an annual $100 billion by 2020 — but they have not said how they want to generate that kind of money, de Boer noted.

Negotiators are still at odds whether or not the new treaty should be "legally binding," and what that would mean — the climate chief said.




http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100525/ap_on_re_eu/climate_un_talks;_ylt=AuupVZaDSRyh7488PqLUDv_GK7IF;_ylu=X3oDMTJtZzBlc3MyBGFzc2V0A2FwLzIwMTAwNTI1L2NsaW1hdGVfdW5fdGFsa3MEcG9zAzUEc2VjA3luX3BhZ2luYXRlX3N1bW1hcnlfbGlzdARzbGsDdW5yZW1pbmRzcmlj

Joan Bryden, The Canadian Press


Marchers made their way down Yonge Street during the 29th annual Pride parade on June 28, 2009 (CP24)

OTTAWA — The Harper government is being labelled homophobic for refusing to fund Toronto's gay pride festival this year.

The festival received $400,000 last year from the Marquee Tourism Events Program but it won't get a nickel this year.

Industry Minister Tony Clement insisted Friday the decision has nothing to do with anti-gay sentiment among some members of the ruling Conservative caucus.

Rather, he said the government decided to fund fewer events in major cities this year so it can spread the money around more equitably to smaller centres.

But festival organizers and opposition critics maintained homophobia was behind the decision. And they claimed exclusion of the pride festival is part of a pattern that suggests hard-right, social conservatives are now in charge of the government.

The decision not to fund the festival comes on the heels of recent funding cuts to women's groups and the government's refusal to fund abortion as part of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's G8 maternal health initiative.

"This is again another example, in my opinion, of a reckless, ideological cut from a Conservative government which actually has a history of attacking gay rights," said Liberal tourism critic Navdeep Bains.

Pride Toronto executive director Tracey Sandilands pointed out some Conservative MPs were aghast last year when Diane Ablonczy, then tourism minister, gave the festival $400,000.

Shortly afterward, responsibility for the marquee program was shifted from Ablonczy to Clement. Tory MP Brad Trost told an anti-abortion website that Ablonczy was being punished for making a funding decision that was not supported by "a large majority of MPs."

Trost's interpretation of events was denied by the government but Sandilands said the flap was a clear sign "there was definitely homophobia at work then."

This year, she said the qualifying criteria for funding has not changed and other events, including the Calgary Stampede, have received funding for the second year in a row.

"That indicates to me that something has changed between last year and this year and it's not our eligibility," Sandilands said.

"So the only thing it can be is some kind of homophobia. I mean, it makes sense."

But Clement said in an interview it's inaccurate to say the pride festival's funding has been "cut off." He said there was "a whole new application process" this year and no event was guaranteed to get money just because they got some last year.

Last year, Clement said the lion's share of the marquee program's funding went to large urban centres, particularly Toronto and Montreal. This year, the major cities were limited to two successful applications, allowing the government to spread the largesse around to smaller centres across the country.

The two Toronto events that will get funding are the Luminato arts festival and the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair. Clement said both are making new attempts to reach international audiences.

By contrast, he said the pride festival is "a very successful event, it's obviously able to stand on its own two feet."




http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100508/100508_pride_gay_funding/20100508/?hub=CP24Home