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The revelation that the RCMP spent $23 million buying more than 600 new cars for use at this year’s G7 summit, and are now trying to sell them off second-hand, suggests a culture that spends with impunity.

The police force decided it wanted 631 new cars for “operational reasons” it won’t discuss. Having decided what they wanted, rather than what they might need, they went through the motions of a cost analysis.

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Buying the cars was more affordable than leasing them, an RCMP spokeswoman told the National Post’s Marie-Danielle Smith, pointing to an analysis of leasing costs versus depreciation over a one-year period. But it’s clear the RCMP did not need 631 cars. Why else would 13 of the 29 Chrysler 300 vehicles put up for auction have mileage of less than 77km? They had barely been driven off the lot before they were auctioned at about a 30 per cent discount.

The story is the same for most of the rest of cars on sale at the government surplus site. Ford Escapes with an average of 2,060 km on the clock that normally retail for between $33,000 and $43,000 are selling for an average of $22,338. The Liberal government had created a novel stimulus spending program for the auto industry, with all the details cloaked behind the usual camouflage of secret “operational requirements.”