Assimilation is the wrong word - it is a political word. We all need to understand each other, to integrate ourselves into a peaceful understanding of our past and the way that past can help us help each other to deal with the future. We have to fix East Road, of course, but where does the money come from - not from our Provincial taxes, they are busy building fast ferries that are slow, buying failed businesses and providing political pensions. The word is out that we may not receive our small community grant this year and if that happens our local tax hit will definitely have to go up. The idea is that you, me, each of us pays for the service we get, based on that amount of that service we use.
Water is an example.
Anmore is one of only a few municipalities that have water meters and charge based on the amount of water used. Anmore is the only municipality I know of that uses garbage tags, purchased by each individual, to pay for garbage pickup. Anmore encourages the use of innovative sewer systems in which 2nd stage treatment is done at the house rather than at some regional centre. These concepts are gradually being tried by other municipalities and regions. We all recognize that for some services we all should be contributing to those aspects of our society which make this a good place to live.