Thank you very much. I didn't answer that the first time you asked it.
We have an incredible responsibility on behalf of the people who work in public transit to make the most efficient system possible, to embrace change if communities are going to move from traditional busing to light rail or other systems. We have pretty sound relationships. We have 3,900 relationships across Canada in the form of collective agreements with towns, municipalities, everything from the cities of Montreal and Toronto to small communities. All of them want to work with us to varying degrees when it comes to making changes to the system. We are quite open to doing that. Some relationships are better than others.
When we lobby federally, we talk about infrastructure funding not from the point of view of CUPE. CUPE members don't do capital works. That's not our point. Our point is that we work with maintaining systems that are falling apart. Canada is a big producer of conventional buses. My own hometown produces some of the best products in the world. We need to align all levels of government, but not to trample on the jurisdiction of provinces or get into a constitutional debate. That's a waste of everybody's time.
The municipalities are preachers of their provinces, legislatively. As somebody who represents workers at the municipal level, fixing rail lines and buses, we are fixing things in some cities that should have been replaced a long time ago. We see changes in government like we've seen in Toronto and we are not sure what the future holds.
Beyond negotiating for wages and benefits for folks, CUPE has a responsibility to be part of the solution and to broaden sources of revenue beyond property taxes. We won't have a national public transit system if the solution lies with property taxes, and there will be a revolt in the country. That is not the solution. There are more progressive ways for us to collaborate. I think the country is screaming for all three levels of government to collaborate on many issues, from health care to the environment, including public transit.