by Beth Duff-Brown
The Associated Press
TORONTO, CANADA - Canada’s borders are still vulnerable to terrorist attacks due to “serious weaknesses” in the nation’s public security system, despite billions of dollars spent since the 2001 terror attacks in the United States, the country’s auditor general said Tuesday.
“There can be abuse of the system,” Auditor General Sheila Fraser said in Ottawa after introducing her report on national security to Parliament. “There are too many weaknesses, and risks are heightened because of those weaknesses.”
Airport screeners let some “threat objects,” such as fake bombs and guns, slip through mock security checks, but the results from the tests are classified, Fraser said, making it impossible to determine how serious the breaches may have been.
The security review also said the federal Public Safety Department still doesn’t know who would take the lead in the event of a national disaster.
The report said improvements have been made in marine security, but “serious weaknesses” remain in emergency preparedness and air transport security.
“Last year, I said Sept. 11, 2001, changed our perception of how safe we are and led to higher expectations for our security,” Fraser said. “The government still has work to do to meet those expectations.”
Canada has already spent some $8 billion (US$6.5 billion; euro5.1 billion) since the Sept. 11 attacks to improve security along its 4,000-mile (6,400-kilometer) border and it intends to spend another $1 billion (US$818,530; euro639,000) in the coming year. However, Fraser said funds have not been allocated based on assessments of risk and that equipment purchased for first responders in different cities was incompatible.
The report also said training for first responders _ the police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians who would be the first on the scene of a chemical, biological or nuclear disaster _ “was progressing very slowly.” The government estimated that it needs to train 6,000 emergency personnel, but only some 200 are fully prepared to handle a major attack.
Among other shortcomings, the report said the federal government still had no emergency plan in place for major power failures like the one that plunged much of Ontario and northeastern United States into darkness nearly two years ago. Despite the 2003 blackout, officials were “unable to provide us with plans to address energy shortages,” the report said.