Well, we did hear back from Chief Walsh yesterday and we did respond back to him. We have not heard anything back yet and we will let the public know when we do hear something. The municipal government can not decide what is criminal activity and what is not. That process falls upon law enforcement, and we expect law enforcement to investigate the situation and nothing less. Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun Here is how Chief Wash replied: Rev. Dr. Maroun – Thank you for your letter of concern. To date, the CBRPS has not received a complaint to investigate this matter. The CBRM treated this as a human resources issue and retained external legal counsel to investigate; as a result of that process, the CBRM has resolved the matter. The findings of this process have been referred to the Nova Scotia Department of Municipal Affairs for their review and any further direction. If the CBRPS is requested to investigate, I can assure you that in due diligence, we will refer it to an outside police agency to ensure full transparency. Kind regards, Chief Walsh Here is my response: Dear Chief Walsh. Thank you so much for your response. With all due respect Chief Walsh, I thought that I had formally requested an investigation with my letter on Friday. If I am required to come to the CBRPS Headquarters to formally file an official complaint, I will do so at your convenience. The CBRPS is funded by the taxpayers of the CBRM and not the Province of Nova Scotia or Municipal Affairs. The CBRM residents are extremely overtaxed with regards to property taxation. The last thing we need is to now be paying for the misappropriation of funding by a former mayor or any other municipal official or employee, past or present. I wrote the RCMP a few years back with a formal complaint against the Provincial Government of Nova Scotia and they assigned an investigator within days and then the RCMP conducted an 8-month long investigation. Your comment “The CBRM treated this as a human resources issue and retained external legal counsel to investigate; as a result of that process, the CBRM has resolved the matter” Based on your comment, there is negligence with CBRPS by not investigating this matter as it falls under the Criminal Code. It is not proper for the municipality itself to investigate matters that fall under the criminal code as these matters fall directly to law enforcement. There have been many previous cases that involved politicians and case laws across Canada. Perhaps Chief Walsh, you could reply and let me know what is needed to formally request an investigation into the former Mayor MacDougall-Merrill by the CBRPS. If you think that I need to contact SIRT or the RCMP, please advise me and I will do so. I look forward to hearing back Chief Walsh with advice from you on how to proceed. The residents of the CBRM are also interested in this investigation, Chief Walsh. Best regards, Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun P.S. The following letter has been ignored by the Province of Nova Scotia: Dear Premier Houston. I write to you today to ask a serious question of you and your government. Considering the recently released information of our former Mayor, Amanda MacDougall, and her expense scandal which would have cost the taxpayers of this already struggling municipality, about $18,000 that we are just learning about. There have been other questionable expenses from other Cape Breton politicians (municipal and provincial levels) in the past and that is why I am writing this letter to you today. I have a serious question for you, Premier Houston. “Is the CBRMs financial responsibility with public funding and money playing a part in the lack of funding flowing into the CBRM municipality? “ The recent assessments that have gone out from the PVSC have increased again this year leaving new homeowners in the CBRM paying some of the highest property taxation in Canada, if not North America. Minister John Lohr is on record saying there is room for the CBRM taxes to increase even more. We in the CBRM are paying more than double than the HRM in property taxes outside the cap. Equalization is provided to Nova Scotia and is solely generated by the CBRM and rural Nova Scotia, to avoid this high municipal taxation. Now that there is over $3,465,000,000.00 coming to Nova Scotia in equalization and the CBRM will receive even less than the measly $15 million we were receiving, this is prompting me to ask you this question about financial and fiscal responsibility within our municipality. If citizen oversight is needed in the CBRM to help avoid this conflict and the extreme high taxation we are suffering from, then I will lead the charge on that front. I do sincerely hope Premier Houston that you will take a moment to answer my question today as I have been fighting for fairness for my municipality for over 30 years with regards to equalization and to date, no elected official will discuss the provincial equalization or the Municipal Financial Capacity Grant with the citizens group I lead, the NSEF. I request to hear back from you Premier Houston. Regards, Rev. Dr. Albert Maroun