Province managing Cape Breton’s decline

We would like to address an issue (‘Study to probe CBRM viability) that appeared in the Cape Breton Post on Dec. 5.

Why would the Cape Breton Regional Municipality engage in spending another $219,000 to study CBRM’s viability”? Why would we spend more money that we do not have to learn something that we already know?

We are allowing the province to manage our decline while the province will not address the issue of why they are not providing the 26.8 per cent of the “equalization” payment that the federal government is providing due to our weakness in fiscal tax capacity.

CBRM Mayor Cecil Clarke is stating that he would like to come up with a better funding plan from the province. The solution has been provided for the past 20-plus years by the federal government because they provide 26.8 per cent of the transfer because of our weakness to collect sufficient taxes to deliver our services to Cape Bretoners and the rest of rural Nova Scotia.

Maureen MacDonald, a former finance minister, has confirmed to the Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF) that 26.8 per cent of the equalization transfer is provided because of the weakness in fiscal capacity related to property in Cape Breton and rural Nova Scotia. If these funds are provided for that reason, why would it not be used for the purpose it was provided?

We read this summer that current Finance Minister Karen Casey stated

the province had a $230 million surplus and then they spent $110 million on the new convention center in Halifax and that left a surplus of $120 million. Why would a province that receives equalization publish in a newspaper that they had a surplus?

The equalization transfer is provided to help all Canadian citizens live equally to the rest of Canada and it should not be used to fund a convention center in Halifax while Cape Breton and rural Nova Scotia is in such a dire situation. It is time for the people of Cape Breton to start to demand fairness from our provincial government and stop allowing politicians to step around the big issue of government corruption.

Fr. Albert Maroun, PhD

Sydney

(Member of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness)