The cost of hosting the G8 and G20 summits in Ontario later this month is something everyone should be concerned about.
Why? Because it's another massive waste of our money - the money we pay to the federal government in what seems to be an ever-more-burdensome taxation system.
Most political analysts agree the G8 - a group of eight supposedly world-leading countries - is increasingly irrelevant because of all the economically important countries it doesn't include.
Even the G20 summit, while it's more "relevant," is mostly merely a hugely ornate photo-op for world leaders and a prestige showoff for the host country. As cynics say, the agenda has already been set, the speeches have already been written, the outcomes have been crafted, and all that remains is to get everyone together on a well-manicured lawn in front of an expensive backdrop for the announcement.
And for this, while the government tells us lean, belt-tightening austerity is just ahead, is going to cost how much?
Security alone is being pegged now at $1.1 billion. The other costs - meals for dignitaries and staff, accommodations, transportation, special single-use, engraved gold souvenir pens for signing agreements - all of that hasn't been brought out yet.
Apparently, security for the two summits was originally budgeted at $176 million - even though the government knew all along it was likely going to be $930 million. Apparently, according to the mouthpieces who trot out to answer political TV show hosts questions, this is standard practice: there's always an original budget amount which has nothing to do with the real costs, and then "supplementary" budgets which bring out the actual expense.
The government refuses to give even general details of what's going into this massive cost, falling back on the tired old argument that revealing details would jeopardize security.
That's as disingenuous as the other standard answer: Well, you wouldn't want us to not protect world leaders properly, would you?
But it's clear that security alone isn't behind some of these costly decisions. A large part of the $1.1 billion is going to cover overtime for RCMP officers - selected for security detail over our exceptionally trained military because, apparently, Prime Minister Harper didn't want to see media coverage of soldiers with guns in the streets.
Well, we could see how he'd be sensitive about that - since that's exactly what a failed Liberal campaign ad from one of our past elections said he would do. (And we can be sure that for all their yelping about escalating costs, if the Liberals pushed the government to use the military for security, those images of soldiers in front of public buildings would turn up in the next election's campaign ads.)
But here's another thought. Our own Centre Wellington Fire and Rescue Department was picked to send a detail to help out with security and emergency response.
It's a great honour - apparently our local firefighters' training levels and equipment caught the attention of whoever's planning these things, and we were invited.
And thanks to the largesse of the federal government, it won't cost Centre Wellington taxpayers a cent - meals accommodation, all expenses are provided. The feds will even fill up the firetrucks' tanks free of charge.
In fact, the township fire department will end up making money from the trip, councillors heard last month.
It's great news - an honour to be chosen to take part. But if the federal government is laying out money so that a small squad from Centre Wellington will not only have everything paid for, but also return from the trip with cash in hand …
Well, perhaps that's one of the reasons the summit is far more expensive than any other - and that has nothing to do with on-the-ground security costs.