The following email was sent to Mayor MacDougall and Councillor Gordon MacDonald. If you remember, back in February of this year, the NSEF made a presentation to the Mayor and Council regarding questions that needed to be asked of the provincial and federal governments. The reason council was asked to pursue these questions was because the governments would not answer them when asked by the NSEF. Here is the email that was sent yesterday: Mayor Amanda MacDougall and Councillor Gordon MacDonald: As a follow up to the NSEF presentation on February 23. 2021, has the council acted on the questions the NSEF presented for council to seek the answers to from both levels of government? This will assist the one lone MLA Kendra Coombes who shocked the minister of municipal Affairs who was unable to answer her questioning his department about the one category of the federal Equalization transfers whose funding is generated by a municipally-related property tax capacity deficiency. Disclosing how these federal Equalization transfers are distributed within this province from this one category is very important in answering why municipal units are being under funded and being forced to go through the dissolution process. As you know, five towns have already done so. The rural municipal units and the CBRM have their financial problems, too, as a consequence of this political manipulation of these federal transfers. And if you read my letter to the editor in last Monday’s C.B. Post, the ownership and control of these federal Equalization payments is 100 percent a federal program in terms of design and implementation and funded by federal taxes. Council, however, has to show, too, it has a stake in this affair. Yours truly, Charles W. Sampson Taxpayer We did hear back quickly from Gordon MacDonald and here is his response: Hi Charles and thank you for this letter and the updates you provide to us as Council for the CBRM. This has been on my radar since your presentation on February 23/2021. A presentation that was very informative and appreciated by me and I am sure many others. I would also like to commend the NSEF on their years of hard work, looking for the answers around the equalization funding that comes down from the Federal Government, answers that I believe should never be withheld. To respond to your email, I want to let you know, I fully support the NSEF request to council to “seek answers to these questions from both the Nova Scotia Provincial government and from the Federal Government on behalf of overburdened taxpayers”. There were 5 questions you pointed out in your presentation looking for answers. My plan is to bring this request before council in the very near future as a motion to council to support the request NSEF made in the presentation to Council on February 23rd. Respectfully, Gordon MacDonald CBRM Councilor District 1 Thank you for following the efforts of the NSEF. We also thank Councillor Gordon MacDonald for the quick reply to our email. We will advise the general public when we have confirmation of the date when councillor MacDonald presents the motion. Here is the link to the NSEF's presentation to CBRM Council and Mayor on Feb 23, 2021. We start at the 31:00 minute mark. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol7afntPcXE