OTTAWA, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- Canada has spent more than $92 billion on extra security measures since the 2001 terror attacks on the United States, a think-tank report said Wednesday.
The Rideau Institute, a non-partisan, non-profit, public-interest research group, released a study that included reports from various security-related government departments and agencies that became involved after the Sept. 11, 2001, aircraft attacks on New York and Washington.
Institute President Steven Staples questioned the need for the additional spending in the release.
"A decade after the attacks of 9/11, it's time to re-evaluate whether we should continue the high level of national security spending," he wrote.
Economist David Macdonald, the author of the report, also questioned the heightened defense spending.
"At a time when the global economy seems to be a greater threat to Canadians' security than global terrorism, should we spend another $92 billion or more over the coming decade on a national security establishment?" Macdonald said in the report.
The institute said of the $92 billion spent, $11 billion of it is what Canada has spent as part of the NATO military mission in Afghanistan to combat al-Qaida and Taliban extremists.
