The $57,000 72 hour fake lake has been the poster child for the record-breaking budget surrounding the G8/G20 Summit being held in Canada this weekend. Last I checked the overall budget was around $1.2 Billion to host these summits – which are split between Huntsville (G8) and Toronto (G20). It was all supposed to be in Huntsville originally, but the G20 proved to be too big for the tourist area.
In any case, lots of people were questioning the high budget estimation and it seemed that things really escalated once plans for what was initially reported as a $2 million fake lake were circulated. It later turned out that the $2 million number was for the entire “Experience Canada” pavillion which included this famous fake lake. The fake lake’s specific cost was pegged at $57,000.
Click here to see what kind of temporary lake you can have built for $57,000.
Very underwhelming.
Reminders
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Wow! $1.2 Billion. That makes the fake lake less than half of 1/100 of 1% of the total cost. The fake lake is a bargain. I’d be willing to set up a video conference for a mere $0.2 Billion. Harper can put the $1 Billion in savings on our national debt.
It will be interesting to see what costs more: security costs or lost productivity by making the Toronto financial district a ghost town.
It would be great if you could crunch the numbers for us Preet, (in your spare time of course) and show how that money spent on the G20 summit could improve say…the CPP instead of raising our contributions like they plan to do, or…investing into nuclear research to provide an alternative to the aging Chalk River reactor due to shut down in 2016 (affecting countless jobs).
[rant over]
Ugh.. the fake lake. WHY CONSERVATIVE GOVERNMENT, WHY?? We spent enough money on the Olympics already. I don’t think we need to spend any more money to show the world “what a great place this is”. Why can’t they just let us be Canadians, instead of ruffling our feathers to look ‘presentable’ to the world? =)
Isn’t it ironic that they are spending 1.2 billion on a three day summit to discuss the 1 billion they will be donating to maternal child health initiative over an entire year for millions of people around the world? I guess there are other things they’ll be discussing – like that tender Alberta beef and the fishing in Muskoka country.
Other countries have held these summits for much much less. Maybe the next one should be in one of the emerging markets. The total cost of summits will be much more with all the work disruptions and lost productivity and damages from the demonstrations. Hope they never come back here again.