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MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS FILES<\/p>\n
CUPE Local 500 president Gord Delbridge doesn\u2019t buy arguments the city can\u2019t find ways around global trade deals.<\/p>\n
The petition has garnered more than 4,000 names.<\/p>\n
Union president Gord Delbridge said the ad campaign was started owing to growing frustration from the membership who have watched revenue flow out of the province to the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to see more focus on our community, and by doing so, we believe that awarding more jobs locally would be better for the community, for our own economy,\u201d Delbridge said Tuesday.<\/p>\n
Mayor Scott Gillingham has repeatedly said that adding a local advantage clause to the city\u2019s contract awarding process would violate trade agreements.<\/p>\n
After some debate with city councillors, the mayor raised a motion in May that would request staff study \u201cpossible bid criteria that could be used to ensure local companies are given equal and fair opportunity to bid on city contracts.\u201d<\/p>\n
Delbridge called the trade agreement argument a \u201cfalse cop-out\u201d and said the city needs to think creatively when building contracts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn these agreements, it says that any (contract) beyond a certain dollar amount has to be considered internationally. Break up the contract and don\u2019t single source it. There\u2019s ways you can do this,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople do it all the time. It\u2019s been done before here, it can be done going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce has long called for improvements to government procurement systems in Manitoba, president and CEO Loren Remillard called freezing out non-local companies a \u201cretaliatory game (in which) no one wins.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have some reservations about organized labour once again asking elected officials to intervene and interfere with administrative processes around procurement,\u201d he said. \u201cHave we not learned our lessons from past failures when political officials interfere, even with good intentions?\u201d<\/p>\n
However, Remillard said, there are ways to improve the procurement process without violating those agreements, including implementing criteria that don\u2019t directly favour local suppliers but seeks suppliers with knowledge of or connections with the local market, or offering more outreach and response to local bidders on why their bids may not have been successful.<\/p>\n
\u201cExplain to (them) the level of benefit back to our community from your bid \u2014 that could be tax revenue, it could be jobs created, it could be knowledge transfer,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t MIKAELA MACKENZIE \/ FREE PRESS<\/p>\n Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce president Loren Remillard says the city can favour local business and stay onside of trade deals.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a massive construction contract discussed at Tuesday\u2019s executive policy committee meeting is set to be the first project to incorporate council\u2019s social procurement framework, which seeks to increase city partnerships with Indigenous groups and other marginalized communities.<\/p>\n EPC voted in favour of awarding a $815.48-million contract to Red River Biosolids Partners to build the biosolids facilities at the North End sewage treatment plant. The facilities take sludge from Winnipeg\u2019s three wastewater treatment plants, treat it and convert it to usable biosolids.<\/p>\n Gillingham called the contract, which still requires full council approval, the largest in his memory and possibly the largest contract awarded by the city.<\/p>\n \n\t\tWinnipeg Free Press | Newsletter\n\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t He said 92 per cent of the people working on the project will be Manitobans.<\/p>\n \u201cThat is significant, because this project is not something that will just be over at the end of a construction season this summer,\u201d he said. \u201cThis project will go on for years to come, which means work for people for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n Should council approve the project, the facilities would begin treating biosolids in October 2030.<\/p>\n \u2014 With files from Joyanne Pursaga<\/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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