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Sixty per cent of the revenue Canadian municipalities earn comes from property taxes. While these revenues are relatively stable and payment isn’t easily avoided, they are regressive. Homeowners in the lowest income group pay five times more in property tax relative to their income than the highest-income homeowners. Property taxes can be made fairer by restructuring rates or providing income-based credits.

Municipal public services – including libraries, transit, water and sanitation services, and community centers – help ensure everyone can have a better quality of life, regardless of how much money they earn. In fact, by making services widely accessible to everyone, cities and towns play a critical role in building fair and sustainable communities.

Canada’s cities and towns provide most of the public services we rely on every day – from clean water and waste collection, to playgrounds and programs for our children. Yet local governments are under financial strain from increasing responsibilities and rising costs. They lack a sound financial footing to meet these needs. Municipalities collect just eight cents of every tax dollar levied in Canada, and their share of revenues coming from senior levels of government has declined. It’s time for new and better revenue sources for our cities and towns.

Municipalities are the building blocks of our country, and the bedrock of our daily lives. They are where we live, work and raise families. We all depend on municipal services and infrastructure for our health and well-being, but Canadian cities and towns are facing unprecedented pressures and lack the sound financial footing to meet growing needs. Our municipalities need better revenue sources if we want them to continue to feed Canada’s success.

Working people are experiencing difficult times. At the bargaining table, we are fighting for fair wages, working conditions, and pensions. In some cases, cuts, restructuring, outsourcing and privatization of public services are threatening the very existence of public sector unions. All this is happening against a background of concerted attacks against unions by right-wing governments, media, right-wing research institutes, and others. Unions are used to being the target of attacks. That is why the Unite for Fairness project is so important. As unions, we need to strengthen our organization and ensure better communication with our members, in order to be strong enough to confront these attacks. We must be informed, trained, and responsive. And we know that the first step is to tune in more than ever before to the needs and aspirations of our members.

Unions serve four absolutely essential functions in our society: gains for workers through collective bargaining, gains that benefit all workers, helping to build a more just society, and fighting setbacks to democracy and solidarity.

Public Service International (PSI) brings together more than 20 million workers, represented by 650 unions in 148 countries and territories. Every five years, PSI organizes an international congress that offers trade unionists the opportunity to gather and discuss global plans for addressing issues related to human rights, social justice and universal access to quality public services.

CUPE was one of several international guests attending the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) 10th National Congress in August 2012. Other guests included public sector unions from Swaziland, Namibia, Botswana, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Sweden, Germany and Italy.

The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) – Philippines celebrated their 30th anniversary in September 2012. Coinciding with their National Congress, the celebration included a Tribute to Teachers and a mobilization to protest against President Aquino’s policies on education, widely criticized for being antiteacher and anti-people.