OTTAWA—As the debate over the militarization of police continues in the United States, new data reveals surplus military equipment in Canada is more likely to end up in a museum than with a municipality.

Data compiled by the Department of National Defence shows approximately a third of surplus military transfers over the past four years have gone to museums. A smaller proportion of surplus equipment made it to local and national police forces, according to the data, released to the Star under access to information laws.

The surplus equipment transferred since 2010 includes:

The sale of various equipment and ammunition to the RCMP, including ballistic eyewear, small arms ammunition and gas mask parts. Cost: $32,000

Two Cougar light armoured vehicles used by the Canadian Forces in Afghanistan were transferred free to police in New Glasgow, N.S., and Windsor, Ont. Cost: $300,158 each.

About $12,500 worth of C4 explosive purchased by Natural Resources Canada, along with $5,040 of miscellaneous ammunition, went to use in the Canadian Explosives Research Laboratory.

The largest beneficiaries of DND’s surplus gear since the wind-down of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan, according to the data, have been two museums in the Ottawa area: the Canada War Museum and the Canadian Aviation and Space Museum.

In all, DND transferred $8.2 million in surplus equipment between 2010 and 2014. Most was given away free through DND’s “gratuitous transfer” program. The department recouped around $204,000 in sales to other government departments, including the RCMP.

The Canadian situation stands in stark contrast with that in the United States, where recent confrontations in Ferguson, Mo., have reignited a debate on the use of force by local police.

The shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, by a white police officer in Ferguson sparked weeks of protests. The police response to those protests was widely seen as disproportionate: snipers, heavily armoured vehicles, tear gas and police officers in full body armour with automatic weapons.

A separate New York Times investigation in June, 2014, found that under the Obama administration, local police have been the beneficiary of hundreds of thousands in surplus military equipment. Police forces in small towns received armoured vehicles, automatic rifles, ammunition, even aircraft under a military transfer program in place since the 1990s, the investigation found.

While Canada’s Defence Department is not outfitting municipal forces on nearly the same scale as its U.S. counterparts, there are other ways for local police to get their hands on military-grade hardware. Police in Windsor, one of the two forces to receive a Cougar from the military, are purchasing C8 carbine rifles to replace older shotguns.

Sgt. Matt D’Asti, a spokesman for the Windsor force, said the C8s are more accurate and pose less of a threat to bystanders when police are forced to use them.

As for the Cougar — a truck strong enough to withstand improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan — the Windsor force has not deployed it since it received it in 2013, D’Asti said.

“We’re not trying to be offensive with it,” he told the Star Friday. “We’re not using it as an offensive police vehicle where we’re actively patrolling with it or using it in that regard. It’s simply to have with us at our disposal in the event that we require it.”

New Glasgow’s Cougar, like Windsor’s has been “demilitarized” — i.e. its weapons have been removed. When asked why a sleepy town of 9,500 Nova Scotians needs a light armoured vehicle, Const. Ken MacDonald cited several reasons.

“The main use for the Cougar is to increase safety not only for our officers, but for our citizens as well,” said MacDonald, a spokesman for New Glasgow police.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“If we had to deploy it, it can be used in a variety of situations like life-threatening situations that may include our officers … it can be used to transfer people, to rescue people, that kind of stuff.”

DND can also commit military resources to local police efforts during crises or large-scale events. Air force reconnaissance planes were deployed in support of police at the G20 summit in Toronto in 2010, contributing to a security effort that included Toronto police, the RCMP and officers from other police forces.