The Toronto Police have completed the installation of 77 new video surveillance cameras in the G20 Summit security zone to supplement their 18 existing ones.

"These additional cameras will support the G20 security measures and will be monitored during the course of the event," police said Wednesday in a news release.

"The additional CCTV security cameras will be removed at the completion of the G20 Summit."

The summit occurs on June 26-27, involving the leaders of the world's 20 largest economies and their entourages. It will be preceded by the G8 Summit at the Deerhurst Resort near Huntsville on June 25-26.

The new cameras are going in the following locations:

  • University Avenue (4)
  • Queens Street West ( 9)
  • King Street West (4)
  • Richmond Street West (5)
  • Adelaide Street West (6)
  • King Street West (8)
  • Wellington Street West (12)
  • Front Street West ( 8)
  • Bremner Street (2)

There are other locations within the security perimeter that will also be getting the temporary cameras.

Const. Wendy Drummond, spokesperson for the 2010 G8-G20 Integrated Security Unit, told CTV News that some key intersections will have more than one of the temporary cameras.

In addition, more cameras might yet be used on a rapid-deployment basis once the summit is underway, she said. "They'll be placed where we need them if we need them."

Ohers will be inside the inner security zone and won't be visible to the general public, she said.

Some of the specific buildings that merit a temporary CCTV camera include the:

  • Toronto Stock Exchange
  • Bank of Montreal
  • TD Bank
  • Metro Hall
  • Toronto Police headquarters

Drummond said there isn't one set up at the designated protest zone at the north end of Queen's Park. A security plan for the legislative grounds is to be unveiled on Thursday.

The Metro Toronto Convention Centre, where the summit will actually be held, sits along Front Street West between John and Simcoe Streets.

The inner security zone has Wellington Street as its northern boundary. Union Station, the Air Canada Centre and the Rogers Centre are excluded from the inner security zone. The CN Tower, the Roundhouse, CBC and the Fairmount Royal York hotel are inside that zone.

Residents and workers in the inner zone must be registered and have accreditation with them.

The wider security zone is bounded on the north by King Street, by Lake Shore Boulevard on the south, Yonge Street to the east and Blue Jays Way and Spadina Avenue to the west.

McGuinty shocked

Premier Dalton McGuinty had been out of the province on a trade mission to Israel when the full $1.1 billion price tag for the G8 and G20 summits was unveiled last week.

The original budget was $179 million.

"A billion dollars is a lot of money, and I think I have the same reaction as a lot of Canadians do," he told reporters at Queen's Park on Monday.

"I think most folks feel we have a responsibility to act as a host occasionally, not on an ongoing basis, for world leaders to come together and talk about matters that are important to all of us. We are global citizens."

However, it has to be done in a less costly way in the future, he said.

The opposition Conservatives scoffed at McGuinty's stance.

"I'm sorry, I find it rather ironic that Dalton McGuinty is criticizing $1 billion in spending when he himself flushed a billion dollars of health-care money down the drain in his eHealth boondoggle," said Opposition Leader Tim Hudak. "It's a bit rich."

With files from The Canadian Press