First things first, I think municipalities in Canada have a raw deal and I put the blame squarely on the British North America Act of 1867 which declared them to be nothing more than “creatures of the provinces” with no real power of their own. It’s a subject I exploredRead...

CBRM council met on Tuesday to hash out details of its 5%, across-the-board tax cut but before they got into it, District 8 Councilor James Edwards moved that the cut be phased in over three years rather than introduced in one fell swoop. This led to a reprise of muchRead More

CBRM council voted on a 5%, across-the-board — residential and commercial — property tax cut this week. I think this chart, from the province’s Open Data portal, helps provide some perspective on this. It shows average Nova Scotia municipal residential property tax rates from 2009/10 to 2020/21. (It’s interactive, youRead More

When we left off, CBRM District 8 Councilor James Edwards (who, as noted in Part I of this article on the CBRM tax cut, is a former Canada Revenue employee), was agreeing that he too, would like to pay less tax, but arguing that to be “fiscally responsible,” any reductionRead More

How to Spend $160 The September 27 edition of the Cape Breton Post was an exciting one for me. The front page featured a Canadian Press story about the provincial budget (prompting me once again to wonder why, if Saltwire is such a heavyweight Atlantic Canadian news presence, it can’tRead...