WILSON: NDP GOVERNMENT SHOULD MEET IMMEDIATELY WITH CBRM MAYOR AND COUNCIL
Date: Thursday September 3, 2009

(Halifax, NS) Liberal municipal affairs critic and Glace Bay MLA
Dave Wilson is today calling on the Dexter government to meet with the
Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s mayor and council in order to end
the dispute over equalization.

“It’s telling and quite disappointing that neither Premier Dexter
nor Deputy Premier Corbett have spoken to Mayor Morgan about resolving
this situation,” says Wilson. “I’m urging the premier and his
deputy to open those lines of communication immediately.”

CBRM recently filed an application to have its ongoing lawsuit heard by
the Supreme Court of Canada; however, the NDP government responded by
asking the top court to dismiss the request on the grounds that the
lawsuit itself was without merit.

Wilson believes the Dexter government is sending mixed messages to the
regional municipality.

“On one hand, we have the premier saying he doesn’t think the
equalization program for Nova Scotia municipalities is fair and on the
other, his government has stated that CBRM is making a frivolous
claim,” explains Wilson. “Unfortunately, when you’re in
government, you can’t have it both ways.”

“At this point, the only people suffering from this dispute are the
citizens of CBRM,” concludes the Liberal critic.


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