The convoy of angry lorry drivers and anti-vaccine mandate protesters that occupied Ottawa for nearly a month cost Canada’s capital more than C$36 million, officials have said.
In a memo the city said policing costs represented most of the C$36.3 million (£21.9 million) bill, which is more than double what it set aside for affordable housing in its most recent budget.
The self-styled “Freedom Convoy” began as a protest by cross-border lorry drivers against a vaccine mandate at the Canada-US border, but devolved into an anti-government movement with an antivax bent, fuelled by a hatred of Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, wild conspiracy theories and far-right sentiment. As well as seizing Ottawa, drivers also blocked crucial border crossings between Canada and the US.
Their cause drew millions of dollars in foreign funding and prompted less successful copycats in the US, Australia, New Zealand and France.
During the three-week occupation, which began in late January, residents were subjected to harassment and almost ceaseless honking, while local businesses were forced to close.
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Even after city, provincial and national leaders labelled it an illegal occupation — with fuel stockpiles and a warren of food and resource tents — it took weeks for the police to act. In February, after Trudeau’s government invoked emergency powers, hundreds of officers descended on the city and dismantled the barricades, arresting nearly 200 people.
According to the memo, the city paid C$27.7 million to police in wages, accommodation, vehicle expenses and food. The cost of bringing in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police took the figure above C$36 million.
Meanwhile, the non-police response cost was C$1.3 million, not including the as-yet-undetermined cost of repairing damaged infrastructure, which suggests that the figure will grow.
It also excludes costs the wider economic costs. The Rideau Centre, a major shopping complex, closed for three weeks at C$2.3 million a day in lost commerce, according to the analysts Shore-Tanner & Associates. A proposed class action lawsuit estimated the total economic impact to workers and businesses at C$150 million to C$207 million.
Ottawa will ask Trudeau’s government to reimburse “all costs associated with the response,” Steve Kanellakos, the city manager, told councillors.
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The protest also left serious fractures in city leadership, characterised by inharmonious council meetings. With residents feeling abandoned, Peter Sloly, the police chief, resigned halfway through the protest. Every member of the city’s police services board walked, apart from its chairwoman, who was removed by a council vote.
“I really think it’s a big blemish on our country,” John Hennessey, a 64-year-old technology professional who was caught on camera blocking a truck with his body, before being mobbed by protesters, told The Times. “I live right here, I have been materially affected . . . that’s why I took the stand.”
