CBRM RESIDENTIAL TAX RATE UNFAIR

Re: ‘HRM vs. CBRM: crunching the numbers,’ Cape Breton Post letter to the editor, March 21.

Malcolm Gillis recently wrote the above letter to the editor in an attempt to discredit a previously written letter by Jamie MacDonald regarding tax rates in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) vs. the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM).

Gillis states that MacDonald was misleading in his facts. Gillis also failed to mention that he is the same Malcolm Gillis who was a former senior official in the CBRM’s planning and development department.

Gillis also states that a single-detached house in the CBRM is worth $113,000 according to Statistics Canada. Well, I called a few reputable realtors in the CBRM and asked what the average price of a single-family home today in the CBRM is and the answer is $243,000 in Sydney and the entire CBRM it is $232,000 not the $113,000 that Gillis claims.

Why is a similarly assessed home in Halifax given a higher assessment with a much lower tax rate? Why isn’t a similar home in Cape Breton taxed the same?

Gillis is cherry picking the points of MacDonald’s letter that distorts the big picture of the CBRM not being treated equally within this province. MacDonald’s point about the tax rates (residentially) being double in the CBRM vs. the HRM are 100 per cent accurate.

As a former senior employee of the CBRM administration, Gillis is offering a defense for not questioning what happens to the significant part of the federal equalization transfer each year that funds the municipal deficiency in their tax capacity related to property taxes and miscellaneous revenues.

Gillis knows fully well that this year the equalization transfer to Nova Scotia is $3.284 billion.

Because this category generates roughly 20 per cent of the total transfer for OUR municipal deficiency and using the same percentage the provincial government uses for its inadequate provincial program of $30 million, simple math will tell you we are due over $300 million.

Charles W. Sampson Sydney Forks