EQUALIZATION GROUP SENDS OPEN LETTER TO COUNCIL 14 Nov 2023 To CBRM mayor and council, In 30 years of fighting for equalization fairness for the Cape Breton Regional Municipality (CBRM) and Cape Breton, the one comment that is ignored at all costs by politicians is that the transfer is made up of five categories. The one category the Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness is seeking is “Municipal Deficiency Related to Tax Capacity and Misc. Revenues.” This year alone that amount is over $600 million, and it is solely generated by the poor fiscal capacity of the “have not” municipalities in Nova Scotia. That is most of rural Nova Scotia excluding the HRM, Chester and Town of Antigonish. So, why do you allow the province to give us $15 million when we are due $300 million (according to the provinces own numbers, not ours) Equalization is not meant to be a perpetual gift to a receiving province. The Canadian taxpayers (federal) are funding this province decade after decade with funding the CBRM never receives. This is on purpose and you all know that whether you admit it or not. Keep us poor and get more next year. Have any of you read section 36 of the Constitution of Canada? The next time you are front and center with Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, read it out loud to him and ask him where this money is being spent in Nova Scotia because it is crystal clear that they are not following the constitution, which is supposed to be the supreme law of Canada. When Nova Scotia Housing Minister John Lohr tells you that you have room to raise our property taxes even more, ask him what his property tax rate is because according to the province, it is 0.85 residential and 2.29 commercial compared to our (Sydney) 2.266 residential and 5.457 commercial. Then tell him to go to hell! (No more niceties from the NSEF from now on. Being respectful gets you nowhere when dealing with politicians.) If you need support to fight for equalization fairness, we are your best friends. We will organize and get hundreds if not thousands of protestors on the streets, but it is up to you as our municipal representatives to stop playing party politics and start listening to the facts. There is a reason why the politicians ignore the one category we are fighting for, which is now 23.7 per cent of the total transfer of $2.803 billion, and that is because there is no argument. They just choose to ignore it and that allows them to continue to misappropriate our funding. To the community members, if our mayor and council ask for our help to come together and protest, we should and we should be strong in numbers. Get your friends and families organized and show up to fight for this island and municipality because it is apparent that those we elect to represent us provincially and federally will not and have not. It is up to us. Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun, Sydney Charles Sampson, Sydney Forks Russ Green, Howie Centre (on behalf of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness)