“What we’re forgetting is the security spend is directly proportionate to the threat level,” says Peter Martin of AFI International based in Milton, Ont. and Cleveland. “It’s a short-sighted view to say it’s too much and what the critics don’t see is the need to provide a security presence that is well-resourced and well-planned for an event taking place on the world stage.”

Martin is working with a number of clients in the Toronto area during the Summit. He says the security presence in Huntsville, Ont. for the G8 June 25 and G20 in Toronto June 26 and 27 is not necessarily out of line.

Citizens in both Huntsville and Toronto’s core have said they felt as though they are under siege with measures such as the fences erected along Hwy. 60 in Huntsville and in the red zone of the downtown core in Toronto.

“Better to have the fence and not need it than not have it and have something happen,” he says.

AFI provided logistics support to the G20 in Pittsburgh last year. Martin says the level of security shaping up in Toronto does not appear to be any different than what he saw there.

By comparison, security costs for that Summit came in at $18 million and in London, U.K. the price tag for security was $30 million, although Canadian officials have suggested those numbers may have been conservative.

Some have suggested that the U.S. government did not disclose the true costs of the G20 and that Canadian officials have chosen to be completely transparent. For example, intelligence services provided by CSIS are included in the cost, but other countries have not necessarily included those services in their final tally.

“It doesn’t look any different. It’s not necessarily a template response, but understand too that the U.S. has a more advanced view of security costs as part of the new business landscape,” he says.

The cost of security was not detailed during last year’s G20 the same way the $1 billion spend has been questioned here in Canada.

With the news this week that a water cannon will be one of the tools security forces have to diffuse protestors, in addition to a sound cannon and a large number of officers, the level of security is foreign to many Canadians.

In a post-9/11 world, Martin says the U.S. has a different view on spending when it comes to security.

And while the primary focus may be on the perimeter erected to protect the dignitaries, Martin says it’s what is anticipated to transpire outside the fence that could prove to be more problematic.

“What you’ll see is two per cent of the individuals causing 98 per cent of the problems — and the problems won’t be inside the ring; the biggest circus always happens outside the ring,” he said referring to the protests expect to occur throughout the days of the Summit. “Police resources outside the ring are significantly diminished to about 10 to 15 per cent regular capacity.

The focus, he says, outside the fence perimeter will be to contain any violent protests and get them under control quickly.