qathet Regional District’s (qRD) finance committee is recommending the regional board continue its membership in the BC Social Procurement Initiative.
At the January 11 finance committee meeting, directors recommended that the regional board renew the $905 membership in the organization.
Electoral Area B director Mark Gisborne said he is the representative on the social procurement initiative.
“It was originally Vancouver Island and coastal communities and it has now spread throughout the province,” said Gisborne. “The provincial government is also keen on the principles of social procurement. I’m fully in support of renewing the membership until such time as participation is no longer required.”
City of Powell River director George Doubt said he remembers city councillor Rob Southcott coming to city council, suggesting social procurement was something the city needed to work on actively on behalf of the city.
“As far as I know the city is participating in that as an organization,” added Doubt.
He said the membership fee should be paid out of a regional district funding source the city is not contributing to because the city is already paying on its own.
Electoral Area Director Sandy McCormick said the fee is $905 and she supported the recommendation.
“It’s a great thing to be involved in and there are so many benefits when we look at what each bidder on a contract has done locally,” said McCormick. “Are they hiring local or supplying the materials locally? All of that is really important, so I’m glad to see us continue the membership.”
Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said the regional district gets good value out of this membership.
“The economic return, I’m sure, far exceeds the dollars that this costs and the benefits to the community are incalculable,” added Fall.
A staff report stated that qRD has benefitted from being a member of the initiative for the past three years. The report also stated that regional district staff have undergone training and have begun to implement lessons learned by incorporating social and environmental commitment language into procurement practices. The next step to be taken is to solidify these practices in policy, according to the report.
The report stated the initiative’s policies have helped guide qRD staff to use procurement and spending of taxpayer dollars as a tool for building a healthy community. Staff have it in the 2023 work plan to amend the delegation of purchasing authority bylaw with the incorporation of social procurement language.
Since June 2020, staff have included a statement of environmental and social commitment into a number of requests for proposals, according to the report. This provides each proponent submitting a bid or proposal for a project to inform qRD about organization practices in the areas of environment, employment, skills and training, social value supply chain and community development.
