A Call-to-Action this Canada Day

Photo credit: Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business

Support Aboriginal Purchasing in Your Organization

As we celebrate Canada Day, the Reeve team is feeling extremely grateful to live in a place where people from all backgrounds can come together. However, we believe it is extremely important to recognize that our rights and freedoms came at a cost. Indigenous peoples have suffered immensely in this country and greater efforts must be made to achieve Reconciliation.

As procurement professionals, we want to show our support to Indigenous peoples by highlighting Indigenous enterprises and the institutions advancing Aboriginal procurement policies and practices across the country.

Simon Fraser University, a member of the Canadian Collaboration for Sustainable Procurement (CCSP), has put in place an Aboriginal Procurement Procedure to share its procurement opportunities with certified Aboriginal businesses. SFU is also an Aboriginal Procurement Champion, a special designation by the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB), as part of its Supply Change program to encourage organizations to procure products and services from Aboriginal suppliers. Mary Aylesworth, SFU’s Director of Financial Operations, reports that this approach has worked well.  “With CCAB I found a source that was national in scope and would do the process of authenticating Aboriginal businesses, as well as offering a channel for outreach and marketing to Aboriginal suppliers. I’d like to inspire MCSP members to consider adopting a similar approach. I want to see this grow and develop, so that all public sector organizations think about how they can work with Aboriginal businesses before going out to the general market.” For more on Aboriginal Procurement at SFU, check out the CCSP’s 2019 Annual Report.

We encourage you to contact the CCAB and the Canadian Aboriginal and Minority Supplier Council (CAMSC) to learn more about their programs, inform yourself on Indigenous procurement best practices, and be inspired by organizations already on their journey aligning their spending with their commitments to Reconciliation such as:

1. BC Hydro – Indigenous Contract & Procurement Policy
2. Manitoba Hydro – Indigenous and Northern Procurement Policy
3. Hydro One – Indigenous Relations Policy and Business Directory
4. Province of BC – Indigenous Procurement Initiative
5. Government of Saskatchewan – Indigenous Procurement Policy
6. SaskPower – Aboriginal Procurement Policy

There is lots of work to be done to achieve Reconciliation with Indigenous peoples—let’s start with how we buy.

Sincerely,

The Reeve team, living and working on the traditional, unceded territory of Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Squamish Nations.