Indigenous Procurement Strategy Engagement
As part of The City’s commitment to Truth and Reconciliation, The City of Calgary is working to reduce barriers and improve capabilities for Indigenous-owned businesses to sell their goods and services to The City. The first and most important step is engaging with Indigenous communities to hear the challenges and barriers they currently experience when competing for City of Calgary contracts.
The City of Calgary’s Indigenous Procurement Strategy has been created to facilitate valuable discussions and guide the procurement strategy in order to increase opportunities for Indigenous businesses to work with The City.
Engagement with Indigenous Communities will be completed in multiple ways over the short and long-term:
An Indigenous Procurement Working Group, made up of representatives from Indigenous Communities, was recently formed to provide input, advice, and recommendations and lived experiences.
The Indigenous Procurement Working Group is meeting multiple times between November 2023 and June 2024.
An Input Questionnaire has been a created to ask specific questions to Indigenous business owners, professionals, and individuals who are interested in becoming a supplier to The City of Calgary.
The Input Questionnaire is now live on The City’s Engage portal engage.calgary.ca/IndigenousProcurement, and is open for feedback until February 26, 2024.
Building relationships and directly connecting with Indigenous-owned businesses to hear lived experiences and input on how The City of Calgary can continue evolving a more equitable and accessible procurement process.
The City is committed to facilitating ongoing conversations to continuously improve the Indigenous Procurement program.
The City has also collaborating with the Canadian Council for Aboriginal Business (CCAB), the Government of Canada, and other levels of government, to compare data, build relationships with members, and leverage events and conferences to continue generating awareness.
Indigenous business owners interested in learning more or becoming a supplier to the City of Calgary are welcome to provide input through the Indigenous Procurement Engagement Page. You can also contact the project team directly at indigenousprocurement@calgary.ca