The following letter was published today. This letter was a clear message to the mayoral candidates that the likelihood of the province sitting down with the new mayor of the CBRM to discuss the underfunding, is slim. After 30 years of ignorance by the province, it wasn’t until the NSEF started to protest and challenge politicians that we saw investment in our municipality. The thirty years prior we saw decline and good jobs leave this area and it is the new attitude of holding politicians accountable and transparent, that is making the difference. Most of the NSEF followers who were there for that first big protest of a thousand people or so in front of the Provincial Building made the difference and caught the eye of a neglectful provincial government. Here is Father Maroun’s letter: I attended the mayoral debate the other evening at Center 200. I was pleasantly surprised at how many times “equalization” was mentioned and at the same time very concerned. Equalization was mentioned as a solution to a lot of our problems and that is where my concern lies. A few of the candidates mentioned that they intend to negotiate with the province for an increase in equalization to solve our many problems such as housing, homelessness and excessive taxation. I am here today to tell you that will not happen. I have been at the equalization battle for over 30 years, and we tried that approach for the first 20 years with zero success. We were cordial and respectful in our approach, but no elected politician would come to the table to discuss equalization once elected. You see the money interests in Halifax run the show and until we see a premier who works for the people and not the elite, there will be no negotiations. To quote former Finance Minister Graham Steele in his book, What I learned About Politics, “All substantial decisions on bills and budgets are made elsewhere, the truth is that Province house is not the place from which Nova Scotia is governed. The real decisions-making about everything-health, education, support for the poor and disabled, justice, transportation- happens behind closed doors in office buildings scattered around downtown Halifax”. The candidates of the 2024 mayoral race are only fooling themselves and us with them if they believe for one second that when they are successful in their bid to become mayor of the CBRM that the Premier of Nova Scotia is going to open up his door and offer up the funding that they are now 100% addicted to. They have kept the CBRM in a poor fiscal capacity situation to generate more equalization, why would they give us more? Tim Houston saw the need to double our payment from $15 million to $30 million. Once elected and when the negotiation of bill 340 were completed, we will see even less then $15 million. I believe it will be $13 million next year while the province receives $3.284 billion because of the CBRM and rural Nova Scotia’s poor fiscal capacity situation. The next mayor of the CBRM should consider rallying the people to protest and demand fairness. The legal route should also be considered and perhaps a Charter of Rights and Freedom challenge or possibly a Human Rights complaint but to think the province is going to be open to negotiation is delusional. They have never treated us fairly, so why would they start now? When we started to protest and demand fairness, we saw the provincial government spend a billion dollars in the CBRM. Perhaps more of the same is needed. Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun