b'FROM OUR DIRECTOROF STAKEHOLDERENGAGEMENTAND ADVOCACYSocial ProcurementComing to a Tender Near You!If you havent been paying attention to social procurementThe Contractor shall report the total number of personnel in construction, it is time to start. It is a growing trend acrossfrom equity seeking groups upon the request of theCanada and North America. Contract Administrator.Essentially, social procurement is the term used to describeAs you can see from this recent example, future government when an owner (usually a government) attempts to leverageprojects will require contractors to provide (personal) details infrastructure spending to advance a social agenda. It canon their workforce. This creates additional questions on what often take one of three forms: can be asked of your staff and your obligations in keeping 1.Social Purchasing: Social Purchasing acquires goods andthis information protected, but that is a topic to be discussed in the future.services for operations directly from community social enterprises that are dedicated to serving their social,The City of Winnipeg is currently hosting a working group environmental and economic purposes.to discuss social procurement options. As a member of that 2.Sustainable Purchasing: Sustainable purchasing adds agroup, WCA will work to ensure that any policy promotes fair, open and transparent tendering.layer of criteria on the purchasing decisions that require suppliers to guarantee their goods meet minimum,WCA advocates for tender documents with clear evaluation pre-determined environmental and social qualities (forcriteria and scoring. We do not want to see highlyexample: low carbon, water efficient, produced in factoriessubjective tender clauses that create a situation where the with human rights). best storyteller is successful. RFP evaluations must remain 3.Community Benefit Agreements: A community benefitobjective. That is the only way that tender awards can be easily defendable and not open to dispute byagreement is a contract signed by the project owner andunsuccessful bidders.a successful bidder that requires the provision of specific amenities and/or mitigations to the local community From a tax-payer perspective, the challenge for social or neighbourhood. procurement will be the effective measurement of cost When it comes to construction RFPs, social procurementand outcome. Depending on the social outcome desired, provisions can take many forms. For example, socialthere may be significant cost implications. An effective City procurement may be called Community Benefit Agreementsof Winnipeg policy will need to be designed to enable the (CBAs), however a CBA is a large umbrella term that may meanmeasurement of costs and benefits.many different things. It could mean the inclusion of extraDespite the challenges, it is positive that the City of Winnipeg public spaces in a development, or in the case of what weis exploring social procurement options and involving have seen in B.C., it could be a project labour agreement (PLA)industry in the process. There seems to be political will at the compelling a unionized workforce. city to adopt social procurement; they will need to listen to Another option is the inclusion of project hire targets forindustry to ensure that it is done in a way that leadsequity seeking groups. In this case, the project proponentto success.states who is included in the equity seeking group and what the target value is. For example, a recent City of Winnipeg RFP for the construction of public washrooms at 715 Main St. stated the following:The contractor should have a minimum of 10 per cent (10%)of their labour force made up of people on this project from equity seeking groups. Equity seeking groups may containDarryl Harrison new immigrants (less than five years in Canada), IndigenousDirector, Stakeholder Engagement and Advocacypeoples, veterans, women, LGBTQ2S (lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer and 2 spirit) and persons with disabilities).10 BUILD MANITOBAwinnipegconstruction.ca'