Columns and Letters

The Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness

Dear Editor,
 
    The Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness (NSEF) have spent a considerable amount of time educating the people of CBRM and Cape Breton County on the issue of the Province of Nova Scotia severely under-funding Cape Breton Island and the rest of rural Nova Scotia.  This issue seems very complicated and hard to get your head around sometimes but in reality, it is very easy to understand.  The Province of Nova Scotia receives an equalization transfer of almost two billion dollars per year that is provided to equalize services and lower tax rates in “have not” municipalities and towns in the province.  The Nova Scotia Provincial Government takes this transfer and places it in “general revenue” and uses the funds as they see fit.  The government of Nova Scotia gives $30.5 million total to all the “have not” regions in the province combined and keeps the rest in this “general revenue” fund and uses it to fund the new convention centre, new library, new bridge deck, new roads, new infrastructure, etc in HRM and then admits publicly that they have a surplus at the end of the fiscal year. 
    The NSEF is asking the Government of Nova Scotia to be clear and transparent to the people of this province about where the people’s money is being spent but they refuse to inform the citizens of this and actually go out of their way to make it hard and almost impossible to find any of this information.  The politicians have no intention in changing how things are done now but the people of this island are starting to wake up to the situation we are in.  Nova Scotia has seen five towns dissolve (Canso, Bridgetown, Springhill, Hantsport, and Parrsboro) as of recent and many more have applied to dissolve due to under-funding from our provincial government and we do not want the next causality to be from Cape Breton Island.  The political parties do not seem interested in changing their policies but we must insist on having our government being transparent to the people of the province.  Far too many resources are being spent on HRM and far too little are spent on the areas on the province that the Equalization Transfer from Ottawa is intended for.  The Federal Government does not want to tell the province what to do with any transfers. The Constitution of Canada, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as well as the Human Rights Act are all being broken by our own provincial government against the people of Cape Breton and rural Nova Scotia.
    The province receives this transfer each year because of the “have not” areas and remember that HRM is a “have municipality” and without us, they would not receive any equalization transfers at all.  The NSEF is interested in coming to any town in Cape Breton and giving you a presentation whenever it is requested.  Please email us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to arrange a presentation or to just ask a question or pass along a comment.  We look forward to hearing from you.

    Regards,
Russ for Dr. Maroun and The Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness
Sydney, NS


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

   

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 


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