The G20 summit caused chaos in Canada’s largest city and accomplished nothing other than a $1-billion photo-op for Stephen Harper, Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said Monday during a campaign stop in Toronto

Ignatieff and Liberal MP Mark Holland (Ajax-Pickering) used the fake lake and burning police cars as a backdrop during a news conference to attack the Conservatives on wasteful spending and raise questions about Harper’s judgment.

“Name one thing that got solved at the G8/G20 summit,” Ignatieff said. “We got nothing done. It wasn’t just that it cost a billion dollars, it wasn’t just that it shut down a whole city, it was that we didn’t get anything done for Canada, for the people in the world who look to our leadership to get something done.”

As part of a power-point presentation, the Liberals showed a photo of a burning police care with the caption, “What $1.1 billion buys you.”

“The symbol of (the Conservative’s contempt) for Canadian taxpayers was that G8/G20 summit … and it all comes down to the Prime Minister’s judgment here,” Ignatieff continued. “You got a perfectly decent, modest Canadian summit in Huntsville and all Canadians can be proud … then the Prime Minister has the bright idea ‘I need a really big Toronto photo-op’ … and the consequence is you waste a billion of Canadian taxpayers’ money.”

He acknowledged Harper can’t be blamed for the “knuckleheads” that turned otherwise peaceful demonstrations into moving mayhem that caused damage to businesses and property — damage for which many businesses have yet to be compensated by Ottawa even though the summit was nine months ago.

In the wake of the summit, Toronto police and other forces participating in summit security activities were criticized for being heavy-handed and violating constitutional rights.

“The ….G8/G20 ended up being a billion photo-op that accomplished very little,” Holland said.

He said Harper’s decision to move the G20 to Toronto resulted “in an out-of-control price tag and severe intrusions into the lives of Torontonians, including all those businesses who suffered damage, lost profits, and who are still being left out in the cold by a government that doesn’t care and isn’t stepping up to the plate with compensation.”

Holland said the “greatest symbol” of the G8/G20 waste was the fake lake built at the Exhibition Grounds at a cost of almost $2 million when Lake Ontario was less than a kilometre away.

And, he said, the Conservative government “sprinkled” millions of dollars around Industry Minister Tony Clement’s Parry Sound-Muskoka riding as part of the G8 infrastructure spending, including a $100,000 gazebo in a vacant lot, public washrooms more than 20 kilometres from the Deerhurst summit site, and “sidewalks to nowhere and restored an antique tugboat from 1910 for $400,000.”

Holland said the government spent more than $200 million on glow sticks, bug spray, sunscreen, snacks, high end furniture, TVs and some of the most expensive Toronto hotel rooms.

“The moral of the story is that all this waste adds up,” he told reporters.

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Ignatieff said a Liberal government would establish a rapport with the mayors of Canada’s cities and provide money for rapid transit programs for those cities.

“Ottawa has got to talk to the big city mayors. Ottawa has got to talk to the small city mayors. They got to be at the table … to make sure Canadians can get to work on time,” he said.

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