44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 19, 2022 10:00AM
- May/19/22 8:30:18 p.m.
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Madam Chair, I would like to assure Canadians that I am fully committed to ensuring the diversity of the Government of Canada's procurement process. This is an extremely important initiative for me.
As part of our efforts to diversify, we have issued RFIs to gather input from Canadian Black businesses, businesses owned and operated by persons with disabilities, and businesses owned or led by members of the LGBTQ2+ community. We have held round table discussions with Black businesses and indigenous businesses to hear first-hand how we can increase their participation in the procurement process. In addition, through mandate commitments, we are going to continue to advance government-wide initiatives to increase diversity of bidders on government contracts. We are going to continue to move forward on other procurement commitments, including better tools, simpler processes and increased opportunities for diverse businesses.
We are making good progress on the indigenous procurement front. We are modelling this work with broader diversity objectives within the supply chain. We have a supplier diversity policy that came into force a year ago. That gives us more latitude in how we run procurement processes. We are now turning that into an actual program of work as to how we can use those flexibilities to increase the diversity in supply chains. There is a lot of outreach that is being done with different groups to try to make it easier, including e-procurement.
We developed a policy on social procurement to leverage purchasing power, to achieve socio-economic objectives and increase supplier diversity. The policy will contribute to reducing barriers and enhancing economic and social opportunities for under-represented groups, such as indigenous peoples, Black and racialized Canadians, women, LGBTQ2+ Canadians and other under-represented groups, including socio-economic objectives in federal procurement, which improves best value for Canadians by balancing spending with achieving important policy goals. This I spoke about before.
It is important for me. It is not just the right thing to do and the morally correct thing to do, but it is also the smart thing to do because once we open up opportunities, bring down barriers and have a level playing field, that creates a system where people who previously faced barriers are going to be supported. That is exactly why, at the end of the day, it is not just the right thing to do, but economically we can elevate, support and allow companies to have access and experience success, because we know the potential is there. We want to tap into and unleash that potential because we know the benefits that it is going to create.
We are currently asking suppliers to voluntarily self-declare if they identify with an under-represented group. This is in line with other self-attestation approaches used in the procurement process. We will work with other departments and under-represented businesses and associations to explore and improve the certification approach, including the consideration of third-party certification. These are some of the measures that we are taking in this regard.
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- May/19/22 10:31:47 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I want to thank the hon. member for acknowledging my stamina this evening, but I am also surrounded by an amazing team, so I have great gratitude for all those who are here and, as I said previously, spread out all over in order to assist me this evening. For the work of my team, I am just so grateful.
In the answers that I did give previously, I actually stated that, with the initiatives we are undertaking, we would be achieving reductions of 82% in greenhouse gas emissions by 2025, and we are in a very good position to achieve net zero by 2030 for our building portfolio.
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- May/19/22 10:33:11 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, with respect to PSPC, I can talk about initiatives that we are undertaking. In addition to the figures I gave on what we have done in our strategies with reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, we are also undertaking other efforts, which include procurement practices that prioritize reusable and recyclable products and our goal of net-zero plastic waste. We are going to continue also to work with our colleagues to introduce a new buy clean strategy and support and prioritize made-in-Canada, low-carbon products.
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- May/19/22 10:34:02 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am here this evening to talk about the procurement file and on the procurement file, I say there are a number of initiatives. I have gone over those initiatives. We absolutely appreciate the crisis that we are in, and we have aggressive measures that we are taking in order to meet our commitments. We are going to continue on that path.
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- May/19/22 10:36:11 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I am very happy that we have a buy clean strategy. In addition to that, we have a national clean electricity initiative. We have an energy services acquisition program. We have many initiatives that we are undertaking as a government, because it is important for us to meet our targets and we want to show leadership in this regard.
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- May/19/22 10:36:57 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, we are focusing on doing what we can in procurement in order to contribute to meeting the targets that are there. This is an all-of-government approach. PSPC has a role to play. I have gone over the numbers with respect to initiatives that we are taking in order to meet our targets, and this work is significant.
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- May/19/22 10:37:44 p.m.
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Mr. Chair, I would put forward the stat that we have accomplished to date as evidence of the initiatives that we are taking and the progress we are making, which is a 57.6% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from our buildings as compared to the baseline laid out in 2005-06. We are going to continue to work on these and other important initiatives in PSPC in order to reach the targets.
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