The Southeast Alberta Chamber of Commerce (formerly the Medicine Hat & District 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. More recently there has been 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 the City’s purchasing and frequently asked questions.

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: https://www.medicinehat.ca/en/government-and-city-hall/purchasing-and-procurement.aspx. Stay tuned for more details as there will be more information added soon.