Government spending needs investigating

I’m writing this letter to express my frustration with our municipal government.

I recently moved to the Groves Point area and have been trying to get a pole light installed outside my home for over a year. I really can’t believe that it’s been a year of “maybe” and “try this person” and so on.

I live in rural Cape Breton like many of you where I have to pay for a well and septic. I basically receive snow removal, garbage pick up and school busing. This is what I pay $4,000 dollars a year taxes for? It’s robbery.

I was told I could get a light and pay $10 a month. It’s not the money that concerns me it’s the principle of the matter as I feel I pay plenty now.

I am really in disbelief that the government can’t take $120 of my taxes to pay for a light that will make my family feel safer at night or enable my children to walk the street after dark and feel safe. We are taxed to death in Nova Scotia and I believe enough is enough.

I want a mayor and a premier who will find a way to stop gauging the average people who are trying to remain in this province. We’re tax poor people and losing the services that we’ve been told for years our tax dollars have been paying for. You can’t even get an emergency room open on the Northside half the time. Where are our tax dollars spent? Is it spent to put $35,000-plus clocks in Sydney Mines when people still need basic things (like a pole light) and can’t receive them?

I encourage everyone within the CBRM to contact your councillors and MLAs and ask for a detailed document of where our tax dollars are spent. We’re losing our population because of lack of jobs and because no one can afford to stay here anymore. We’ve lost roughly 4,000 people over the last four years and 6,000 jobs.

We need to start back building small and work together to rebuild. When our towns were separated they all had a decent budget and great active communities for the kids to enjoy. With the smaller areas it was easier to concentrate on strengthening communities and having activities for our youth. Now it seems all our money is spent in Sydney because we are amalgamated as one. It’s harder to get funding for our little communities that once flourished. It’s very depressing for us all who believe we can have so much more.

Please look closely at the ballots this election and place your X where it’ll do the most good for us all. James Yetman Groves Point