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Rebuildingour community, one contract at a time

(From left to right) Laurie Gaudet, certified public procurement officer and chartered manager, along with buyers Stephanie Rogers, Shaunnah Blackmore and Belinda Brunet.

The Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo is the first municipality in Alberta to develop and adopt a social procurement framework. By transforming its method of purchasing goods and services, the RMWB is proactively seeking social and economically sustainable benefits for the region. Social procurement is a growing practice that seeks to better leverage tax dollars to achieve positive social outcomes to shape more equitable and healthy communities. In 2013, social procurement became law in the United Kingdom, then Europe, and is now rapidly moving across Canada. Adding social to procurement results in a powerful tool for improving lives and achieving goals. It supports inclusive economic development, Indigenous economic reconciliation, skills training and workforce development, youth employment, supportive employment, supply chain diversity, social enterprise capacity building, and improved small business access to public sector supply chains. Through a series of social procurement design labs, held in partnership with the Fort McMurray Chamber of Commerce, Fort McMurray Construction Association and the non-profit sector, RMWB’s procurement department has included the feedback obtained within the development of the social procurement policy. Since September 2016, the procurement team has conducted a series of pilot bid opportunities focusing on jobs prosperity and skills development. In the past eight months, seven opportunities were offered resulting in 12 job placements and three skills opportunities. Partnerships have been developed with Choices Association of Fort McMurray and CAREERS: The Next Generation as the liaison for the bidder. One of the bid opportunities was a requirement for drainage improvements to several greenspaces in Timberlea. The timeline to complete the work is June to September 2017. This is a great opportunity to include a social value for

jobs prosperity by awarding points for the number of project-specific positions, and additional bonus points for a commitment to full-time employment. The successful bidder committed to seven project specific positions and five of those will become full-time employees. The RMWB is also rewarding and recognizing bidders for their commitments through a social audit which identifies diverse hiring practices, workforce development, employment and income stability, and supporting the community. The pilot process has identified this tool to be applied to the purchase of materials and equipment. RMWB buyers, Stephanie Rogers, Belinda Brunet and Shaunnah Blackmore, have emerged as strong internal champions of social procurement. “With a little education, we realized that it was only our own belief system that had to change, then we could start thinking strategically about ways to add social value to the procurement process,” they say. For them perhaps the biggest surprise was that no rules or laws had to change to make this new approach possible. Social procurement works within the guiding principles of a fair, open, transparent and competitive process that is trade agreement compliant. Laurie Gaudet, certified public procurement officer and chartered manager, is the social procurement lead at the RMWB where procurement processes have been re- designed to align and support the social and economic goals of recovery. Gaudet sees social procurement as an important paradigm shift; a best value approach to inclusive economic development. “This has been an incredible opportunity for staff engagement and has resulted in a high level of empowerment amongst our buyers. Having the chance to improve lives is very rewarding.” n

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