Insights into local purchasing

The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce has been pleased to work with the Supply Chain department with the City of Medicine Hat over the last 5 years around some of the concerns expressed by our members related to procurement and purchasing. We were pleased to see the procurement policy and protocols reviewed and updated in August 2023. There was additional work on the procurement bylaw, internal training and annual reporting, along with updates to the City’s procurement landing page to provide more transparent information on City purchasing.

We have been pleased to see process improvements, highlighting successes such as changes to the policy, processes and timelines that have been implemented. The annual report highlights contract values showing volume of work contracted out, along with the percentage of work that is done regionally and provincially. The report highlights close to 70% of the contractual values are awarded regionally and also features information about low-value contracts, competitive contracts and invitational contracts.

As an example of the progress made, our vendors have stated that they have seen a noticeable difference since 2019 on SOAs and the department has been open to ongoing and regular conversations over the past five years.

We encourage businesses to check out the annual report and view the updated purchasing and procurement landing page here: www.MedicineHat.ca/procurement. The page was redesigned with updated content published on October 10. The page includes a step by step guide on how to bid on opportunities with the City of Medicine Hat, as well as how to get paid once you are awarded a contract. It also includes detailed insights on many of the frequently asked questions received by the City, the Construction Association and the Chamber that we’ve worked to answer.