Government policy has become less of consultation and more of dictation. Do as we say! The following article was in the Cape Breton Post by Mayor Amanda MacDougall. We all remembered Tim Houston telling the CBRM that the grant will be doubled and then we had one year to renegotiate the new M.O.U. Now it seems that the CBRM and other rural communities will NOT be apart of the negotiations. The municipalities will have no say in how we are funded with our own money. If municipalities are children of the province, then we have an abusive parent. It is obvious that the messages of the NSEF group that questions the government about the one category in the equalization formula that is generated by a municipal deficiency in their tax capacity related to property taxes. That municipal tax capacity deficiency generates for the Province of Nova Scotia $560 million this year alone. The province is using $30 million to address the deficiency that the Federal government is sending approximately $560 million to address. The province is short by $530 million to the struggling municipalities. Tim Houston or Allan MacMaster has never responded to the NSEF when we ask these important questions. The mayor stated, “we can’t be an afterthought” and the mayor is correct in her comment and the municipalities will be an afterthought as we are excluded from these important negotiations. Now, how can we assist the municipality by showing the provincial government that this is not acceptable. All previous governments had done the same thing. It is time the public step up to the plate and demand answers as there is no accountability anymore by the provincial government. You can’t respond to the money interests but not respond to the general public. We are the residents of Nova Scotia Mr. Houston, and we are the ones who generate this equalization funding from Ottawa. It is time you start to realize that! Please reach out to the government with your concern. Remaining quiet is not working and when outside residents voiced their concerns about the extra taxation, it was quickly abolished. Don’t you think it is time to voice your concerns as the under-funded and unrepresented residents of Nova Scotia: [email protected] (Tim Houston) [email protected] (Allan MacMaster, Finance Minister) [email protected] (John Lohr, Municipal Affairs Minster) [email protected] Brian Comer, CB MLA PC) Here is the article: shown with Wayne MacDonald: “The municipalities weren’t included in the negotiations of this breakdown (of the municipal capacity grant),” McDougall said. SYDNEY — Mayor Amanda McDougall says she wants to meet with Premier Tim Houston to discuss another municipal financial capacity grant top-up, among other regional concerns. And if there is a chance the Cape Breton Regional Municipality could receive another top-up similar to one the provincial government rolled out last fall, McDougall said the decision shouldn't just come from the provincial government alone. McDougall told council during Tuesday night's meeting at city hall there needs to be an improvement in the working relationship between the province and municipalities, particularly when it comes to investing in communities that are looking to grow, such as the CBRM. “The municipalities weren't included in the negotiations of this breakdown (of the municipal capacity grant),” McDougall, who also serves as president of the Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities, said after the meeting. “So NSFM stepped up as a board and said, ‘Hey, if you're not going to include us in a formal role in these negotiations, let us bring our administrators in. Let us bring in the people who know how this stuff works the best.'" Last fall, the Houston government allotted CBRM a $15-million top-up as part of an additional $32 million in equalization payments the province doled out to municipalities province-wide to help pay for crucial services. A DIALOGUE HAPPENING In a letter she recently sent off to Houston thanking him for last fall's commitment to double the municipal financial capacity grant, McDougall wrote that she wanted to get a dialogue happening between CBRM and the province to see how “your government can continue to invest in our community — the secondlargest municipality in the province. “There is a lack of clarity on the timeline for the MOU (memorandum of understanding) and municipal financial capacity grant negotiations and how that will impact the continued doubling of the current capacity grant,” she wrote. McDougall would like to see a meeting between CBRM and the premier take place to ensure there is good, solid communication with respect to what the municipality wants and to see where Houston and his government can meet those wants. ‘WE CAN’T BE AN AFTERTHOUGHT’ She cited good relations and conversations with John Lohr, the province's Municipal Affairs and Housing minister, as a starting point. But McDougall wondered whether a decade-old argument still exists about municipal governments being viewed like grassroots organizations with little impact on provincial decision-making. “We can't be an afterthought,” she said. “This impacts our day-to-day operations, how we plan for our future. If we're not at that table in the development of this (equalization) formula or service agreements, it's like we're not being respected.” In presenting her concerns, McDougall wasn't seeking any votes or motions from council, but more “support and advocacy to ensure our municipal voices are included in meaning conversation” prior to any provincial legislations made, she said. Along with a letter sent off to the premier regarding the municipal capacity grant, McDougall also sent one on the contentious non-resident provincial property taxes — a day before the premier announced the government will not go ahead with the two per cent property tax for or all non-residents who own residential property in Nova Scotia. ‘OUR GOVERNMENT LISTENED’ That scrapped tax may have largely came from an outpouring of dissent publicly, as District 1 Coun. Gordon MacDonald noted, “all the municipalities were giving (Minister Lohr) the gears over not … consulting with them over the property tax increase.” Once that tax increase was rescinded, “We saw our provincial government listen, respond and actually take back something that the community spoke out about,” McDougall said. The mayor said while she has yet to follow up on the two letters sent, both dated May 4 and sent the following day, she feels confident that conversations about greater input from the municipality will take place. “CBRM is going to have an opportunity to have our voices heard,” McDougall said.