Equalization payments need to become a federal issue

There is an old saying that goes like this: “He who pays the piper calls the tune.”

As far as equalization payments to Nova Scotia are concerned, make no mistake. It’s the Liberal government in Ottawa that’s calling the tune. Suggestions that the constitution ties Ottawa’s hand in how the transferred money is doled out by Halifax is a load of old rubbish.

Aside from having an army of lawyers to put on the case the federal government has tremendous financial influence over the province in everything from shipbuilding to the fishery.

Cape Breton has two federal MPs ¬- one of which is shared with Guysbourough County on the mainland and like Cape Breton it is one of the poorest regions in the province. Recently, millions of dollars of federal money was invested in museums and centres for innovation and the like in these two ridings, along with funding for all kinds of community groups and organizations.

Many would argue that all of these organizations are deserving of some support or other. But having millions of dollars doled out on things like that is not what people here are marching in the streets for, at least metaphorically speaking. If the amount of space given in the Cape Breton Post is anything to go by its rallying to the cause for Cape Breton to receive its share of equalization dollars. Once achieved the belief is that then everything in the garden would be a whole lot rosier.

When former Cape Breton Regional Municipality Mayor John Morgan started his campaign for equalization fairness, support for the idea was far from universal. Now it appears the bandwagon in full to overflowing.

As I said earlier the Liberal government in Ottawa is paying the piper and that where any leverage on the issue has to be applied. But if you stand on top of Kellys Mountain and look off into the west as far as the eye can see (and way beyond that) there’s nothing but a sea of Liberal Red. It’s that way because they have given the people who elected them what they want. Not always the best policy, but that’s democracy for you.

If there is any chance at all for a change in the equalization formula that will address the issue in Sydney it has to become the major local issue in the next federal election, here and in the other regions of the province in the same boat.

However, given the disparate nature of those seized by the issue now I am not holding my breath. It is hard to imagine given the almost generational loyalty of Cape Bretoners to one political party or another that any unified threat to the current incumbents would stand the test of time. Frank King Sydney River