Final G8/G20 bills due by December: Toews

The government had allocated an initial security budget of $930 million for the event. Other G20 hosts have reported much lower security costs, but a Parliamentary Budget Office report in June found that a lack of disclosure by other jurisdictions makes it difficult to make a direct comparison.

The previous G20 summit in Pittsburgh, for example, had an oft-quoted figure of $18 million for security costs, but that figure only accounted for overtime costs for local and state police as well as salary and expenses for visiting forces from other jurisdictions, and not the cost of numerous other security and intelligence agencies, the report found.

"The PBO does not feel the total cost of security of the 2010 G8 in Huntsville is unreasonable," the report said.

In defending the costs that accrued, Toews noted that there were more delegates attending the combined G8 and G20 summits than athletes who attended the 2010 Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver.

"Canada can be proud of hosting such a massive undertaking when the eyes of the world were upon us," Toews said Monday. "While the cost was higher than anyone of us would have liked, it was necessary."