Harry & Meghan's security costs: Canada won't pay for much longer

One of the murky issues stemming from Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan's step back from being senior royals – their future security costs and who would foot the bill – got slightly clearer Thursday when Canada declared it won't pick up the check for much longer.

But don't expect the Duke and Duchess of Sussex or palace officials to further clarify the matter: It's "classified information for safety reasons," according to Harry and Meghan's website.

The office of Canada's minister of public safety, Bill Blair, released a statement Thursday, obtained by USA TODAY, that confirmed for the first time that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police has been working with London's Metropolitan Police to provide security for the couple and their baby, Archie on an intermittent "as-needed basis."

Harry and Meghan and baby Archie have been living on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, in a borrowed luxury estate since Thanksgiving.

But that protection will end "in the coming weeks," meaning as of March 31, when their status as working members of the royal family ends and their new lives officially begin as financially independent royals living in North America.

“The Duke and Duchess of Sussex choosing to re-locate to Canada on a part-time basis presented our government with a unique and unprecedented set of circumstances," the government's statement said. "As the Duke and Duchess are currently recognized as Internationally Protected Persons, Canada has an obligation to provide security assistance on an as needed basis.

"At the request of the Metropolitan Police, the RCMP has been providing assistance to the Met since the arrival of the Duke and Duchess to Canada intermittently since November 2019. The assistance will cease in the coming weeks, in keeping with their change in status.”

Over to the Sussexroyal website, where the couple last week posted a lengthy explanation, described as bitter and "petulant" by their media critics, of the deal they worked out with the royal family over what their new lifestyle would look like and who would pay for it.

For one thing, they will no longer be "working royals" so the name of the website will have to change because Harry and Meghan have agreed to not use the word "royal" in any form on their social media or commercial endeavors.

Also in the posting, the two acknowledged they will continue to need "effective security," due to their public profiles, his military service and the "shared threat and risk level documented specifically over the last few years."

"No further details can be shared as this is classified information for safety reasons," the posting said. (The Sussexes, especially the biracial American Meghan, have been subjected to so much racist and angry invective on their social media, palace officials had to intervene.)

This decision allows the government of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to avoid taking on a deeply unpopular financial burden, reported the main broadcast network, CBC.

"Polls have found that only about one in five Canadians believe it is an appropriate use of tax money to pay for the couple's security arrangements," CBC reported.

Security arrangements for royals are crucial but typically hush-hush. Few in Britain have forgotten what happened to Harry's mother, the late Princess Diana: When she was divorced from his father, Prince Charles, in 1996, she was so intent on being independent she refused royal security protection for herself despite being offered it and despite alarmed objections from palace officials.

A year later, she went to Paris without royal security and died in a car wreck while racing through a traffic tunnel to evade photographers. Of the four people in her car, only the security agent working for her lover, Dodi Fayed, survived because he was the only one wearing a seat belt.

The couple can expect to be supported in part by the income of his father's lucrative Duchy of Cornwall, at least temporarily. But they are also expected to enter into business partnerships which could net them their own millions to help pay for security.

Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan will wind down their working-royal lives by March 31, appearing in Britain for a series of final engagements, including several joint outings: On March 5 at the Endeavour Fund Awards celebrating achievements by wounded warriors; on March 7 at the Mountbatten Festival of Music at the Royal Albert Hall in London; and on March 9 at the annual Commonwealth Day celebration service at Westminster Abbey.

Harry is already back in the United Kingdom. He was in Scotland on Wednesday to appear at a sustainable travel conference in Edinburgh to talk about Travalyst, his project with major travel companies aimed at promoting environmentally-friendly travel.

He is scheduled for a second public appearance Friday at famed Abbey Road Studios with Jon Bon Jovi to witness the recording of a single to benefit his Invictus Games Foundation.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Meghan Markle, Prince Harry: Canada won't pay security costs for long