LETTER: Fact checking criticism of Cape Breton equalization group

Advertisement 1 This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Breadcrumb Trail Links HomeCape BretonCape Breton OpinionOpinion LETTER: Fact checking criticism of Cape Breton equalization group Response to critic Author of the article: By Contributed Published Sep 11, 2026 2 minute read Members of Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness have responded to criticism. PHOTO BY ELIZABETH PATTERSON /Elizabeth Patterson Article content Well, Parker Donham finally has presented his version of a fact check on what the Nova Scotians for Equalization Fairness is asking government to explain. Poor Parker is under the misapprehension that the data used by the NSEF belongs to the NSEF, and not the government he so poorly defends. Article content Article content 1. Nowhere has Parker refuted why the two levels of government and his comments refuse to address why the federal government’s equalization formula has been increasing its constitutional obligation of funding the five categories over the decades, and the fact that one of them actually funds the municipal deficiency in tax capacity related to property taxes and miscellaneous revenues. Article content Article content This year, the total equalization transfer is $3.538 billion and the one municipal category amounts to approximately $700 million or about 20 per cent of the total. No comment or fact checking from Parker about these governments’ lack of transparency and accountability as to where even this specific significant portion of the total federal Equalization funding was spent. Why? Article content Meanwhile, the provincial equalization grant was capped for decades at about $30 million. Article content Again, Parker, the NSEF members did not make up this data. Article content 2. Nowhere does Parker explain why the Nova Scotia Appeal Court ruled that the CBRM is legally unable to action section 36. This court ruled that only the two governments who were privy to what is represented by s.36 can legally address s.36. Nonsense, according to the Supreme Court of Canada! Article content In terms of proper judicial review, that N.S. Appeal Court ruling overruled a 1950-1 Supreme Court of Canada ruling between the province of N.S. and the federal government who were trying to have the SCOC interpret, in future rulings, the jurisdictions exclusively assigned to the provincial governments and those exclusively assigned to the federal government not so exclusively. Article…