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JOHN WOODS \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n
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Dave Petrishen, operations manager for Salisbury House. The City of Winnipeg has dropped Salisbury House as a supplier of food to city golf courses, and contracted Aramark Canada, the Canadian arm of a multibillion-dollar U.S. firm.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cWe, being a Winnipeg company, local ownership, a Manitoba company, to be thwarted out of that \u2014 the city, last year, (had) a big movement about trying to change contracts and get away from U.S. suppliers, and then all of a sudden, we get the word that it\u2019s not us,\u201d he told the Free Press Tuesday.<\/p>\n
City communications officer Kalen Qually confirmed the city chose to go with Aramark Canada, noting the company is \u201calready active in the local food services landscape with both government and non-government organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parent company Aramark is based in Philadelphia and provides food services to prisons, schools, hospitals and other businesses in 15 countries. Aramark Canada has more than 13,000 employees, with its headquarters in Mississauga.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou would think, after all that time, that you want to have a conversation and want to keep the thing local, and keep it Winnipeg. That\u2019s the disappointing part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Petrishen said Salisbury House has made an effort to keep the prices of its golf course offerings low, especially when compared to prices at larger venues, and supported local breweries with its beer carts.<\/p>\n
He said he is wondering why, in the age of \u201cshop local\u201d messaging from all three levels of government, the city would forgo a long-held relationship with a local business with its own commissary for a massive company with U.S. roots.<\/p>\n
\u201cI kind of get it, it\u2019s business, right? You go with whatever the best offer would be and things like that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut you would think, after all that time, that you want to have a conversation and want to keep the thing local, and keep it Winnipeg. That\u2019s the disappointing part.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salisbury House designated about 15 staff for the two golf courses. Petrishen said those employees will be redirected elsewhere in the business.<\/p>\n
City council property and development chair Coun. Evan Duncan called the decision \u201cunfortunate,\u201d but Aramark Canada won out in the RFP process.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that a local company wasn\u2019t the successful bidder for this, but Winnipeggers demand transparency when it comes to any level of government,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd to go through a proper RFP process where it\u2019s an open bid, it\u2019s transparent, there\u2019s a proper scoring system, that is the way to go when we are awarding contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t KEN GIGLIOTTI \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Kildonan Park golf course (pictured) as well as Windsor Park golf course had contracted Salisbury House to provide beer carts and a \u201cmini Salisbury House restaurant\u201d selling Nips, hot dogs and other concessions at the courses for the last 16 years.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood) said the last time an RFP was issued for food services at both golf courses, Salisbury House was the sole bidder. This time it was more competitive.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we were a hub that had several large corporations operating out of Manitoba or Winnipeg, I would anticipate that we\u2019d have even more bidders on this,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n According to the request for proposals, Kildonan Park\u2019s golf course makes approximately $275,000 to $400,000 in annual food and liquor revenue, including taxes, and 36,433 rounds of golf are played, based on a five-year average. Windsor Park\u2019s golf course makes around $200,000 to $300,000 from an average of 32,601 rounds.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s unfortunate that a local company wasn\u2019t the successful bidder for this, but Winnipeggers demand transparency when it comes to any level of government.\u201d<\/p>\n The contract allows for a mutually agreed upon two-year extension.<\/p>\n In October, the province defended a $12-million food supply deal it signed with Aramark Canada to cover a number of government entities, including Shared Health and Red River College Polytechnic.<\/p>\n At the time, Public Service Delivery Minister Mintu Sandhu said 226 Manitobans work for Aramark Canada.<\/p>\n Food and Beverage Manitoba executive director Michael Mikulak decried the decision from the city in the face of U.S. tensions.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially right now, it seems tone deaf to go from a valued supplier like Salisbury House that\u2019s been a partner with the city for years and years and years, and to turn toward a U.S. company during this time right now, when we\u2019re having so many tensions and when the Americans are proving to be very unreliable partners, it seems like a missed opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Government procurement is an underutilized way to bolster economic development, Mikulak said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s really an opportunity to support local businesses and to have that kind of multiplier effect that ripples through the economy,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t While Manitoba Restaurant and Foodservices Association executive director and CEO Shaun Jeffrey declined to comment on the details of the change, he said government, like the rest of Manitoba, has a responsibility to support its own businesses.<\/p>\n \u201cEspecially here in the restaurant industry, we have faced years and years of detriment, to increases in prices and, obviously, detriment to our industry, and it\u2019s becoming harder and harder to be a viable restaurant in Manitoba,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would hope that everybody trying to resource business\u2026 would be looking at a Manitoba business as much as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t Malak Abas Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg\u2019s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak<\/a>.<\/p>\n Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print \u2014 part of the Free Press\u2018s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press\u2019s history and mandate<\/a>, and learn how our newsroom operates<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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