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Schematics of a new headquarters for a top counterterror unit that were found in a curbside Ottawa trash heap could have provided terrorists the information needed to strike at the elite force, a former CSIS agent says.

"If somebody was to attack the installation, tried to penetrate [it], it's pretty bad because here you have got the technical plans," said Michel Juneau-Katsuya, who once worked for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.

Blueprints of the layout for a new home for the Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit at CFB Trenton were discovered in a green garbage bag on Bank Street last Thursday night.

Coincidentally, they were found by an analyst at the left-leaning Rideau Institute — known for its trenchant criticism of the military — who fished the plans from sidewalk trash as he and his wife returned from dinner in Ottawa's Glebe neighbourhood.

"It's one of those things where you scratch your head and say, 'This can't be true'," said Rideau Institute analyst Anthony Salloum, who turned the plans over to National Defence officials late Wednesday.

Photographs provided by the Rideau Institute show that the schematics provide ample information about the layout at CFB Trenton and the new building, including sensitive details about the security fencing, the electrical grid scheme and the sewer system.

The blueprints list the names of six private contracting firms, including Smith and Andersen Consulting Engineering — which has an office near where Mr. Salloum found the plans — and Wood Banani Bouthillette Parizeau, another consulting engineering company. Both declined to comment.

Mr. Salloum said he didn't take all the documents stamped with Department of National Defence markings at the Ottawa trash pile, saying he left six to eight other rolls of papers at the curbside.

Mr. Juneau-Katsuya said the discovered blueprints might force National Defence to relocate the counterterror unit's new building — and will certainly prompt a shakeup of the way the military handles sensitive information

He said the breach could have increased the vulnerability of the Joint Incident Response Unit, a group he describes as the "kind of insurance we need to have to protect ourselves — because we know Canada is on the blacklist of al-Qaeda."

Just last October, the federal Auditor-General blasted Ottawa for "serious weaknesses" in procedures to safeguard sensitive information entrusted to the private sector and singled out National Defence for "outdated and incomplete" policies on this.

Last May, the Auditor-General also reproached National Defence for how it handled work on a NORAD facility, noting "the blueprints and purpose of the building … were placed in the public domain when they were made available to interested contractors."

National Defence was tight-lipped on this latest embarrassment, saying only that it's still investigating what it has already acknowledged was a serious security breach.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day wouldn't comment until he gets a full explanation. "If there is some kind of security breach … that's of huge concern. We're going to wait for all the details."

Liberal defence critic Denis Coderre said he finds it ironic that the Harper government, with its penchant for secrecy, may have lost a slew of confidential building plans.

He used the incident to mock a Canadian general's warning in February that the military is cautious about what it releases, because Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan are reading Canadian newspapers.

"Al-Qaeda doesn't have to read The Globe and Mail any more; all they have to do is look for a garbage can and find something interesting from DND," Mr. Coderre said.

The Canadian Joint Incident Response Unit is the military's first-response team in the event of a terrorist attack involving weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear, chemical and biological strikes.