Dear Mr. McNeil:

Your opening comment in your short reply of May 8, 2018, in which you state, “I want to reiterate that Cape Breton is treated in the same way as any other region or municipality in Nova Scotia” is, perhaps, the nearest thing to a truthful comment your government has made on this issue.

Certainly, the government data reveals your statement is only accurate when all eligible economically struggling municipalities for Equalization funding under the provincial equalization grant are under-funded proportionally the same as the CBRM.

However, when it involves the Capital Region, your comment needs you to provide the evidence it does not receive an unfair advantage from the federal Equalization payments. Your party in Opposition thought this was important too, which it is, when it called for an audit of this federal transfer in the AGM resolution of 2011-12.

Apparently, your party was only interested in attracting votes to a policy you never intended to honour. Government behaviour like this recalls the relevant quote of the corrupting nature that political power can result in.

Your further comment that the, “Courts have made rulings against your position” is not exactly an accurate description of those legal proceedings.

The courts never allowed the position of the CBRM to be adjudicated before a trial judge. The Supreme Court of Canada’s Committee of Three, too, decided NOT to have the court decide. The legal system, acting like the stagecoach shotgun guard, prevented the courts from having to rule on the position of the CBRM. The legal system protected the government from having to legally justify its manipulative handling of the federal Equalization payments in a trial setting.

Mr. McNeil, your government’s refusal to be completely honest and transparent about these federal Equalization payments’ distribution within this province will continue to attract more people to this movement who have been denied their constitutional benefits prescribed by the supreme law of this country.

Yours truly,
Fr. Albert Maroun PhD
Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness