Payment protest
Equalization demonstration held in front of provincial building in Sydney
Darlene MacDonald says she has two very good reasons to make her voice heard.
Standing with her daughters, 13-year-old Jessica and 11-yearold Jaden, the Balls Creek resident attended a demonstration held by the Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF) on Wednesday to protest what they believe is the unfair distribution of federal equalization funds to municipalities across the province, including the Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
“We’re dying here,” said MacDonald. Her sign noted the high child poverty rates in the area. “We [she and her husband Jamie] moved back from Edmonton 11 years ago. I’m a substitute teacher and I can’t get a full-time job. They’re closing schools. This year was a little bit better, but not much.
“We need to get more funding down here and we need to get more infrastructure and we’re not. The government is not helping us down here.”
In March, the NSEF held its first ever public meeting to discuss the issue. Since then, they’ve conducted three protests including one Wednesday in front of the provincial building on Prince Street in Sydney that drew about 200 people. Motorists honked in support as they passed by demonstrators holding signs and waiving Cape Breton flags.
According to the NSEF, Nova Scotia will receive $1.838 billion this year as an equalization payment from the federal government but will only distribute $32 million of it to its municipalities. The group believes the $15 million the CBRM collects is less than one per cent of the $239 million is should be receiving.
“It’s to get the word out to more people to come down and protest and have an equal equalization payment to the CBRM,” said protester Robert Krawchuk of Sydney.
John Duffy of Sydney said it’s not just about the money, it’s about getting answers.
“There’s something going on behind closed doors here I think,” he said. “I don’t like to use the term play politics, but I really think they’re playing politics and there has to be something going on that we’re not finding out.”
Duffy said he isn’t concerned with what party is in power but is calling for transparency.
“Just so they can put all the books on the table and say here’s what you’re supposed to get, this is what you’re getting and this is why you’re not getting it, just so we know because right now, we don’t know,” he said. “That’s what this is all
about — to try and get some answers.”
Municipal Affairs Minister Derek Mombourquette, MLA for Sydney-Whitney Pier, told the Cape Breton Post in an interview on May 8 that the $15 million the CBRM receives from the province has nothing to do with the federal equalization transfer program but is partly from the Nova Scotia Power grant-in-lieu of property tax
program and partly from general revenue from the province, not a direct flow of transfer money from the federal government.
He said the government uses the federal transfer payment in conjunction with its other revenue streams to fund a wide variety of programs and services across Nova Scotia.