Thank you to our witnesses for being here.
Mr. Buda, municipalities have been very successful in augmenting their revenues over the last two decades and the last decade in particular. Between 2001 and 2011, municipal revenues grew by 71%, while inflation and population growth totalled 30%. In other words, revenues to municipalities have been growing at twice the pace of the need.
I think it's fair to say that taxpayers are funding municipalities adequately and that the revenue issue is now completely resolved. The question becomes why there is still a shortfall in the municipalities' ability to keep infrastructure up to speed. That question prompted this study.
We have found that one of the reasons could be an absence of competition for projects. Does your organization have a position on the issue of closed tendering, that is to say policies that ban union-free workers from participating in infrastructure projects in certain jurisdictions?