The City of Winnipeg has circulated a hypothetical sample of what a social procurement requirement in a Public Works tender could look like in a soon-to-be released pilot project, to elicit feedback before such clauses are included.
To view the sample tender package, click here.
The City has a number of tender clauses that will be used to meet the goal of its social procurement action plan, which seeks to spread the value of procurement to under-employed or under-represented communities – Indigenous, racialized, newcomers, Black, women and LGBTQA2S+ individuals. The clauses related to hiring, training, advancement and purchasing.
“We need to see the social procurement clauses reflect the goals of the policy and the practical realities of the industry,” MHCA President & CEO Chris Lorenc said.
Alignment with practical realities is necessary for the program to be a success, Lorenc noted.
The City will be posting early this year some Public Works tenders that will serve as social procurement pilot projects.
Each pilot project will contain one social procurement clause.
As a cautionary step, the City has prepared a hypothetical water & waste tender that embeds a requirement for hiring individuals from target equity groups.
The pilot projects are intended to assist in collecting baseline data on the hiring or training thresholds the industry is currently capable of providing, to prepare future iterations of the social procurement action plan.
As part of submitting bids on pilot projects, contractors are required to say what they will commit to delivering (ie percentage of workers hired from equity groups for a construction job) should they win the contract, along with a social procurement plan to support that commitment.
However, there will be no penalty on the contractor should it fall short of the hitting the goal they set.
The MHCA is gathering comments on the requirements within the hypothetical tender. Please send your comments by January 23 to Chris Lorenc (clorenc@mhca.mb.ca) or Catherine Mitchell (catherine@mhca.mb.ca)
