On-going

Way Forward Commitment:

Achieving maximum value for money is a priority for our government. Every year, the core public service spends hundreds of millions of dollars to acquire the various goods and services required to deliver the public services on which Newfoundlanders and Labradorians rely. A strategic sourcing approach has the potential to bring this number down while maintaining the quality of public services and supporting local economic activity in a manner consistent with trade obligations.

Using the new Public Procurement Act, our government will adopt a strategic approach to procurement that maximizes opportunities for public bodies to purchase commodities through joint and group purchasing initiatives and enables the province to leverage the purchasing potential of intergovernmental arrangements, such as those announced under the Atlantic Growth Strategy. Our approach will also consider opportunities to strengthen our economic base by purchasing from local businesses where appropriate.

What We’ve Accomplished:

• With respect to strategic approaches to procurement, the Public Procurement Agency (PPA) continues to work with the federal government under the terms of the National Master User Agreement in an effort to identify commodities that NL public bodies may be able to acquire under the benefits of that agreement.
• PPA recently issued a request for proposals for an e-procurement tool and are working with other public bodies that are exploring the use of a similar tool so that they may avail of resulting solution if it meets their needs.