Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Welcome to both the president and vice-president.
I worked for many years at the municipal level and would often meet with unions to talk about who owns the work, in terms of what their members' expectations were. We oftentimes had to go through a collective bargaining process, so it was important for me to understand the lines in the sand they had, in terms of who owns the work and where there was some discretion for the municipality to provide private or contracted services.
Can I ask both unions, respectively, where you draw the line in the sand, in terms of what work belongs to your members and where there's some discretion for the government to contract out? I would say that, in the municipal sector, if we're building a bridge.... We don't employ people who build bridges. We have engineers on staff, but they're not engineers who design bridges, so we would have to, by the nature of the work we're undertaking, contract almost all of that out, except for the project management component.
All of that being said, I'm wondering where your line in the sand is, in terms of providing the government some discretion to naturally contract some of the work out while respecting the rights you've enjoyed for decades with your respective unions.