Every purchase has a social, economic, and environmental impact, whether intended to or not. Through Social Procurement, the Municipality seeks to leverage existing procurement activities to achieve positive social value outcomes such as social, economic, environmental, and cultural benefits that align with the values of the Region.
Social Procurement Objectives
Through the Social Procurement Program, the Municipality seeks to support the following strategic goals:
- Building responsible government
- Rural and Indigenous communities and partnerships
- Socio-economic reconciliation
- Employment and skill development opportunities
- Regional economic development
- Economic resilience
- Building sustainable communities
- Foster equality, diversity and inclusion
- Reduce barriers to access resources
- Downtown revitalization
Social Procurement Questionnaire
The Municipality intends to include the Social Procurement Questionnaire on a variety of competitive solicitations (Request for Proposals and Request for Quotations) in order to assess how possible suppliers can contribute to the Municipality’s above noted strategic goals.
Social Procurement Working Group
In a commitment to continuously improve the Social Procurement Program, a multi-stakeholder Social Procurement Working Group is being established to provide feedback and input on the Social Procurement Program and implementation thereof. The working group will consist of members from various municipal departments, the local business community associations, the Indigenous business community, the non-for-profit sector and industry.
Local Business Purchasing
The Municipality is prioritizing doing business with Local Businesses and local Indigenous Businesses for low value and below trade agreement threshold purchases.
For low value purchases (below $10,000), the Municipality will prioritize buying local, where possible. For purchases that are below trade agreement threshold (between $10,000 to $75,000 for goods and services and $10,000 to $200,000 for construction activities), the Municipality will obtain a minimum of thee quotes from Local Businesses and local Indigenous Businesses, where possible.
If you are a Local Business or local Indigenous Business, please register as a vendor on bids&tenders . Following your registration on bids&tenders, please email social.procurement@rmwb.ca with a copy of your RMWB Residential Business License and once the Municipality confirms that you qualify as a Local Business or local Indigenous Business to add you to the Local Business Directory.
When registering, ensure that you identify which goods, services or construction services you are able to contract with the Municipality for. This will ensure that your organization receives notifications when relevant low value and below threshold opportunities become available.
The Municipality uses the following definitions:
- Local Business - A business with a Residential Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo business license and an office in the region. The Municipality reserves the right to ensure the business employs at least one local employee.
- Indigenous Business - A business which is 51% or more owned, operated, and controlled by an Indigenous person(s).
Municipal Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Businesses
The social value objectives included in the Social Procurement Program seek to support Indigenous communities, businesses and individuals in the Region. In addition to this, the Municipality is advancing the development of a municipal procurement strategy for Indigenous businesses, which will provide additional tools to leverage the Municipality’s spending to support Indigenous communities, businesses and individuals within the Region.
Contact Us
Email social.procurement@rmwb.ca should you have any questions regarding the Social Procurement Program.