Vancouver security firm gets fast-track license for summits

Contemporary Security Canada (CSC), the Vancouver-based private security firm hired by the RCMP for the G8 and G20, has received its fast-track license from Ontario’s Ministry of Community Safety and Correctional Services.

The firm was not accredited to work in Ontario when it was awarded a government contract to provide about 1,100 private guards for the Toronto and Huntsville summits.

Licensing is usually a rigorous three-stage process that takes four to six months, but with “significant assistance” from the RCMP, according to ministry spokeswoman Laura Blondeau, the CSC was able to secure its license in about two weeks.

A background document from the CSC says the company’s private guards will provide “airport-type pedestrian security screening, including inspection of persons and items at the G8 and G20 sites.”

In a previous Star story, other private security industry members criticized the fast-tracking of CSC, questioning whether proper due diligence had been carried out.

“It’s an unfair slight to all the legitimate players in this industry,” said Ross McLeod, president of the Association of Professional Security Agencies.

Comments

[Andrew]

The least they could have done was to give the contract to a licensed, Toronto-based company. That way, the profits can stay in the city that took the brunt of the inconveinences.