Thanks to Cape Breton MLA Kendra Coombes the Nova Scotia government’s Minister of Municipal Affairs was presented with a question about the federal EQUALIZATION transfers which all governments, past and current, have been deliberately unaccountable for its distribution and have practiced a complete lack of transparency regarding these federal billions$. MLA COOMBES has raised a question that involves only one of the five categories in the Equalization funding, and it is a very important one. The category she is seeking answers to involves the municipal deficiency in tax capacity related to property and miscellaneous revenues. This involves a significant percentage of the total transfer of each year’s federal Equalization funding. For example, the latest year for which figures are fully available is 2019-20 when the total Equalization payments were $2.015 billion. The percentage of that total in that year was 23.7 percent that was generated by the MUNICIPAL DEFICIENCY IN TAX CAPACITY RELATED TO PROPERTY AND MISCELLANEOUS REVENUES. Yes, the municipalities within this province were unable to generate sufficient revenues from their tax sources to provide their citizens with services at a national standard and at a comparable rate of taxation. That 23.7% of the total amounts to $477.5 million that was sent by the federal Equalization transfers to address this municipal deficiency in tax capacity related to property and miscellaneous revenues. The provincial (equalization) grant which the provincial government uses to fund its municipalities, is approximately $30.5 MILLION. MLA Coombes’ important question should be recognized by rural municipal governments and the Cape Breton Regional Municipality Government. Where is this amount of funding being spent while 5 towns have dissolved due to insufficient funding? Why are more municipal governments considering dissolution because of insufficient funds when the federal Equalization program provides sufficien?