This time, to the Canadian taxpayers. Remember the time when Meghan Markle and Prince Harry lived in Canada for a while? This happened before they officially stepped down from Megxit and before they transferred to LA.
At the time, people did not bother asking how much Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s stay in Canada before they officially stepped down, cost. There was a petition that circulated however, where Canadians voiced out that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle should pay for their security while in Canada, no matter how much Canadians loved the royals to be in their turf.
It appears now that the petition did not really do anything about the security costs taxpayers had to shoulder. A watchdog now revealed the staggering amount. According to documents obtained by the said group, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s stay in Canada already incurred over $40,000 in security costs.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation revealed that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police spent over $56,384 Canadian or roughly around $41,500 US to protect the two while they were in Canada. This amount just might even be smaller than the actual costs. There must have paid salaries to Mounties, who also aided in keeping them safe. According to the RCMP, it cannot reveal how much the salary costs were to keep their operations private and protected.
The protection that RCMP provided officially ended on March 14. The group refused to give the whole amount but asserted that it is nothing to scoff at, in any way. “More than $50,000 is nothing to sneeze at, especially when you consider the fact that this is taxpayers’ money covering bills for one of the most famous and wealthy couples in the world,” said Aaron Wudrick, director of the taxpayers’ group.
Wudrick added that: “For months, the Trudeau government refused to even acknowledge Canadian taxpayers were on the hook for Harry and Meghan’s security costs.” But this reveals that yes, the taxpayers footed the bill. Rage is expected to follow after this report.
Ironically, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle seemed oblivious to the piling costs to the taxpayers. According to Wudrick, if the government did not cut them off finally, and the two continue to spend time in Canada, the bill could have rapidly amounted to millions.
The group even showed a statement found in an email exchange between Bernadine Chapman, Commanding Officer of RCMP’s national division, and the police officers. The email was quite telling. According to Chapman, media is like a “hot potato” so Canada can expect a lot of media coverage with the royals staying there.
She then wrote, “We are having a greater conversation next week on the go forward on this. This has the potential to cost us huge!” Naturally, this had taxpayers slamming the two on their social media.