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The Special Allocation of Funds for
Security and Intelligence Operations
October 19, 2001
The Government of Canada announced today a special allocation of $47 million
to two of Canada’s security and intelligence organizations: the Canadian
Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Communications Security
Establishment (CSE).
These additional funds will strengthen the ability of the CSE and CSIS to
provide timely and accurate information and analysis in support of the fight
against terrorism in Canada and abroad.
CSIS is receiving an immediate allocation of $10 million so that it can
invest in new technology and increase its investigative capacity. This includes
technical upgrades such as the acquisition of computers, secure fax machines,
high-speed fibre-optic modems, crypto units, collection systems and servers.
The CSE will receive $37-million to augment and retool existing systems and
to accelerate planned projects as follows:
- $6 million for support to research and development related to CSE's
mandate;
- $26 million for upgrades to information technology
infrastructure capabilities to enhance processing and analysis; and
- $5 million for the purchase of equipment for cyber threat
and vulnerabilities identification.
The funds announced today will complement new legislative measures announced
earlier this week to modernize Canadian legislation. The Anti-Terrorism Act
will help combat terrorism by strengthening government's powers to investigate,
prosecute and prevent terrorist acts.
These measures are an important part of the Government’s $280 million
Anti-Terrorism Plan – a plan that brings to $1.8 billion the amount the
Government of Canada has invested in policing, security and intelligence since
Budget 2000.
The Government of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Plan is designed to balance the
need for increased security after the events of September 11 with safeguarding
Canadian values. It has four objectives:
- to stop terrorists from getting into Canada and protect
Canadians from terrorist acts;
- to bring forward tools to identify, prosecute, convict and punish
terrorists;
- to prevent the Canada-US border from being held hostage by
terrorists and impacting on the Canadian economy; and
- to work with the international community to bring terrorists to
justice and address the root causes of such hatred.
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