I met with Houston and he affirmed that he was going ahead with the $15 Million, but he did not miss the opportunity to mention everything that was given to us to prop up Sydney Steel. It is *definitely* something that was always a component of his thinking. But, he'd be better off wearing the hat of financial analyst, and not the ugly one partisans wear—if he's a true solutionist, and not regressing to that of an obstructionist. Kenzie's words ring true. I loved hearing him explain political history stuff on the few occasions we got to chat. :)

Max, since the 1970s, all governments have been lowering taxes in a race to the bottom. For instance, Dr. Susan Rosenthal in her informative article online on March 15, 2023, Canadians Are Losing Medicare I think was her title. In her article, she stated that prime minister Pierre E. Trudeau back in 1977,, reduced the federal commitment from the 50% to just 20%. That reduction over 40 some years helps explain why health care is now in serious trouble. With the policy of reducing taxes for the wealthy becoming a concern for maintaining a country’s infrastructure and services for its citizens, there is the massive growth of the tax havens to avoid being taxed. A former parliamentary secretary to former federal finance minister Bill Morneau met in Paris in 2017 I believe with 66 other officials from other countries who were concerned over the tax leakage that was preventing them from maintaining their infrastructure and proper level of public services for their citizens. This Canadian official knew at the time the Harper in 2015 had changed the Income Tax Regulations 5907 (11) that would allow this untaxed money to re-enter Canada untaxed and no record of this would be kept. According to Stats Canada, the top 20% in this year hold almost 68% of the wealth, while the bottom 40% have under 3%. The consequences of the past policies are the source of our present problems.

There's no Halifax or Ottawa money. There's provincial investment and federal investment, and federal equalization investment (from "have" provinces). It's *all* sourced from taxpayers. When we see infrastructure built or upgraded, it's because that's what the government does. They collect our taxes and provide said infrastructure (among other things). What did we do to earn investment in upgrading the Regional hospital? Well, we closed failing emergency rooms, and get cancer far more frequently than we should, likely due to our dirty industrial beginnings, at a time when the safety standards were not as integrated or advanced as they are today. It's not a gift. It's a vital need, particularly with an aging blue collar population and excessive outmigration of younger folks in the preceding decades. Most spends represent not just infrastructure, but an infrastructure debt that accumulated because multiple governments weren't deploying what was required. But, we do pay taxes. None of it is a gift from Halifax. In a have-not province, if we want to consider the investment a gift, it's a gift from Canadian tax payers in *have* provinces that fund the federal equalization pool. Without that, Nova Scotia is insolvent. Ironic that they're ready to scold a municipality for being near insolvency without an equalization pass-through via the municipal capacity grant. There are all kinds of reasons to criticize the CBRM, particularly mayor and council. However, the NSEF has made the point that the comparative budget of the municipality does *not* stand up well to others in Canada of similar size. Specifically, that our budget is too low. If Houston would take education off of our books and declare our police services a provincial police service (savings us $28 Million+), we'd have a chance to show whether or not we could successfully manage the municipality without a complete stranglehold.