The following letter to the editor was published yesterday in the Cape Breton Post. Allan MacMaster is the one MLA from Cape Breton who has ignored the NSEF and every request we sent to him to communicate with us over the past 5 years. We feel that he has such a high position in the new PC government because he was rewarded for ignoring the people of his island. We are not saying that he is not a good MLA for his community because he obviously is with the development and growth on the west side of the island. I will continue to try and communicate with him and see if he will answer some questions now that he is the Minister of Finance for the province. Thanks you Father Maroun Here is the recent letter: Letter to the Editor. Allan MacMaster Out of Touch…. Dear Editor. The NSEF board members and I laugh when we read the reports out of Halifax from the new PC government about a surplus for 2022-2023 as reported by Allan MacMaster. What a joke! It was not that long ago we listened to Karen Casey (former Liberal Finance Minister) report to Nova Scotians that there would be a $230 million surplus and the HRM was going to give $110 million to the new convention center and then spend $120 million on a new waterfront museum, all for Halifax. Now we watch Allan MacMaster do the same thing except for one thing…..he was a little smarter not to mention that the surplus came from equalization like his counterpart, Casey. MacMaster has never once in the past 5 years answered one email or letter from the NSEF and neither has Tim Houston for that matter. For us it is the same games by a different party all while the population of CBRM continues to suffer at the hands of elected officials. MacMaster stated that the surplus came from “higher personal income tax, HST revenues, the Canada Health Transfer and offshore accord payments” but the amount of people waiting for a family doctor is now over 80,000 so how can there be a surplus from the Health Transfer? I find it interesting how MacMaster did not mention Equalization as one of the revenue sources that the surplus is coming from. Equalization makes up 1/5th of the provincial budget at over $2.4 billion now and as the politicians like to state “equalization comes to the province unconditionally” but yet we have been waiting for decades for both levels of government to show us the legal justification for this “unconditionality” nature of the equalization transfer, but none has been provided by any level of government because it does not exist. Someone with a law background is one day going to challenge government on this issue as you can not state a policy as law. We are not sure if Mr. MacMaster is aware of the tax rates in the CBRM being himself from Inverness but if there is any surplus in the provincial budget, they might want to consider using that surplus to lower the taxation in the CBRM and level the playing field within the province……or does that scare the provincial government? The people in the CBRM are now aware that we are kept poor on purpose, and it is us that generates the total equalization for Nova Scotia along with the rural regions of the province. We are also aware that the provincial government is not using equalization for its intended purpose that is set out in the Canadian constitution so you can see how your statement of a surplus is nothing but a slap across our faces in the CBRM. Regards, Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun & The NSEF