City procurement plan’s progress halted

The City of Winnipeg’s effort to come up with a social procurement policy has hit a snag, with a working group lobbying for cash to hire help.

Under the policy, companies would be rewarded for offering “community benefits,” such as hiring people who face employment barriers, or achieve key environmental, ethical or social goals. For example, the city could award bidding points to companies that incorporate those “social” benefits when they compete for city contracts.

Earlier this year, a working group was created to help devise a social procurement framework and action plan, which would also focus on Indigenous procurement.

However, the working group says a lack of expertise has halted progress, so a third-party expert should be hired.

“We want this to work and we want this to be successful. We’ve got a lineup of social enterprise groups that want this to happen. The construction industry wants to have an increased
labour force… the likelihood of success is much higher if there’s a third-party engaged,” said group member Darryl Harrison, the director of stakeholder engagement for the Winnipeg Construction Association.

While the working group did not list a price for the consultant contract, Harrison estimated it could cost between $100,000 and $150,000.

Ideally, the group wants to ensure an action plan is ready for implementation within six months.

On Wednesday, Mayor Brian Bowman successfully called for EPC to postpone its vote on the policy framework for 30 days, in order to give the working group more time to consult with city staff.

“The 30 days will allow us to better flush out whether or not (the consultant is) necessary… I’m not prepared to sign a blank cheque (when) we don’t know how much (money) would be required,” Bowman told EPC members.

The matter is still slated to be heard by council, which could cast a different vote. Bowman said he will consider the new funding but needs to ensure due diligence on behalf of taxpayers.

“There was no cap on the dollars being requested… In the interests of everybody involved, having 30 days
layover allows us that opportunity just to get a little more information,” he said.

Members of the working group deemed the social procurement framework that’s been produced to this point a “work in progress.” While it sets a target to develop a three-year action plan, they argued it lacks important detail on the amount of social procurement points that could be available for city contract bids, how the city would train staff to assess the bids and how it would educate industry to submit them.

Harrison said the group is not suggesting the social procurement work start over.

“We don’t see this as going back to the drawing board at all. We’ve done a lot of work already. There’s already a 90 per cent completed framework,” he said.

Supporters of social procurement have said a city policy should encourage more employment among many groups of Winnipeggers, which could include people who have disabilities, have been involved with the criminal justice system, have been part of the child welfare system, did not complete high school, have dealt with addictions and/or collected social assistance.

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Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga