Canada Wastes A Billion Dollars To Arm Border Guards

Canada doesn't have a billion dollars to waste on border security measures that don't work.

Unfortunately, that is exactly what the current government has offered Canadians with its decision to arm Canada's border guards.

The Harper Conservatives have put nearly all other border security measures on the back-burner in order to channel resources towards a dubious policy whose hefty price tag keeps climbing.

In the current economic context, how can this government justify persisting with a policy that is well on its way to being a billion-dollar boondoggle?

Positioning the policy as a quick solution to increase border security, the Conservatives announced that they would arm Canada's border guards in the heat of the 2006 federal election campaign. At the time, they offered no background studies on the policy's effectiveness and no analysis of its costing.

http://www.embassymag.ca/page/printpage/holland-12-3-2008