Government Operations committee  There are approximately 600 certified diverse suppliers across all of the supplier organizations. The one challenge, and it's why this is still in its infancy, is that we have to help the supplier councils convince more suppliers to get certified. The city does business with abou

Government Operations committee  To clarify, under $100,000, it's not uncontested; it's still a quoting system, so at least three people are competing for the work. The numbers that we landed on relate to the Canada free trade agreement, where for amounts of more than $100,000, we would be looking to put it to a

Government Operations committee  Well, in part this is where the diversifier list comes into play. Our staff will look at that list, find the diversifier that fits the goods or services they're looking to purchase, and contact them, as well as at least two others they might already know from past experience.

Government Operations committee  Thank you very much.

Government Operations committee  For contracts that are under $100,000, generally speaking we don't do construction contracts through there, but when we do, we wouldn't require a bond. We have a policy that bonds are only applicable above $250,000. A general concern that we're always facing in procurement is ens

Government Operations committee  There definitely have been success stories. For example, when dealing with an organization as large as ours, convincing the department to actually follow through on the process properly is a challenge in itself. We managed to get 42 contracts awarded to diverse suppliers in 2017.

Government Operations committee  Yes, when we do a pre-qualification or request for proposal and there's an evaluative component, there will be points assigned if they have their own supply chain diversity policy. They would have to provide that to us to demonstrate and get the points, including if they're a cer

Government Operations committee  Thank you, and I appreciate the compliment. I would say that we still struggle, like the federal government, in finding ways to simplify it for small and medium–sized businesses—

Government Operations committee  I would think that our social procurement program is in part one of the ways to help address it. With contracts under $100,000, people would just contact the same vendors they know. We're trying to open that up so that small and medium-sized businesses that are diversely owned ha

Government Operations committee  I think this social procurement program is one example that's been successful. We've heard quite clearly from the—

Government Operations committee  I would say that we're still working on a good example. We're trying to do more outreach. We still struggle in the bigger contracts to break them down so that small and medium-sized businesses can participate.

Government Operations committee  To clarify, we don't have targets with respect to groups, but I understand the issue that is being presented. We work with the supplier councils to help try to make sure that their program is being rigorously met, and we monitor them. We've only been up and running for over a yea

Government Operations committee  Sorry, I don't have the percentages with me. I know that in 2017, for women-owned businesses, we had about $17 million worth of spend with them, and that was primarily driven by one contract, which was a construction contract.

Government Operations committee  We're setting up supplier network events with our supplier councils. We have our own internal ones, and we have ones with them as well. We try to get out about 12 times a year to push this message.

Government Operations committee  The city is a member of each of those organizations. The organizations have set up a process in which they will go out and verify that a company is owned, managed, or controlled by 51% or more of the respective minorities that they represent. CAMSC and WBE Canada are based on pro