Provincial and federal governments purchase billions of dollars in goods and services every year – what if a portion of those purchases could help address homelessness, food insecurity, poverty, and mental health needs?
In November 2022, Social Purpose Organizations (SPOs) and government agencies came together to discuss the path forward for social procurement in Newfoundland and Labrador. The event was hosted by the N.L. Social Enterprise and Innovation Coalition in collaboration with Buy Social Canada and brought together 89 leaders representing 45 agencies.
“Social procurement can be understood as the use of purchasing power to create social value. In the case of public sector purchasing, social procurement involves the utilization of procurement strategies to support social policy objectives.” - Barraket and Weissman, 2009
Several key recommendations emerged through two days of in-depth dialogue to inform emergent provincial government policies on social procurement.
#1 - Set Clear & specific goals
Social Procurement is only as successful as the goals it hopes to achieve. To ensure success, agencies recommend defining key outcomes and indicators of success prior to the implementation of social procurement practices. While pan-government goals are essential, there is an opportunity for individual government departments to target their own specific goals, such as supporting Indigenous-owned businesses, hiring more newcomers, or tackling food security.
“Willingness on the purchaser’s part to listen to the opportunities that could be created is one of the biggest shifts in social procurement from transitional procurement. It is a collaborative approach to create community value”. - David LePage, Buy Social Canada
#2 - Define a multi-sector advisory committee
Connecting the demand (government) and supply (SPOs) side of the social procurement continuum through a multi-sector advisory committee will help ensure that the implementation of social procurement is as successful as possible. A multi-sector advisory committee would ensure that the goals being put forward in a social procurement strategy are aligned with sector readiness, and in cases where there is a lack of sector readiness, that there is appropriate training in place to scale up the sector to meet an increase in demand.
#3 - Develop internal and external training
On the topic of training – social procurement is a different way of doing business that will require upskilling for government departments, SPOs, and businesses alike. Implementation training opportunities for government departments, with the goal of fostering a clearer understanding of what social procurement is and how it is implemented through social procurement policy and legislation, will be critical. On the supply side, SPOs will need support with training on new procurement processes to ensure that they are prepared to respond to tenders.
#4 - Champion social procurement through an all-of-government approach
One of the loudest recommendations is that social procurement should be fully integrated into public procurement and that it should not be seen as an optional process for government departments that choose to opt in. If generating social impact is accepted as valuable public policy, then policy implementation should be mandatory in the same way that other procurement processes are mandatory. With this full integration of social procurement practices comes accountability on behalf of the SPOs to ensure that they are demonstrating that they are meeting expected outcomes, and on the part of the government entities that ensure these expected outcomes are aligning with the key outcomes and indicators of the social procurement policies. “I would love to see the government perspective shift from ‘We have to buy something so where am I going to buy it’; to ‘These are the goals that we need to achieve in order to support our Province -- who is going to help that?’” - Roseanne Leonard, NL Association of Community Business Development Corporations
#5 - Design an adaptable framework
While agencies agreed that social outcomes need to be at the centre of a social procurement policy, they also agreed that there should be flexibility in the application of a social procurement policy. Allowing for flexibility for the application of social procurement policy will help ensure government departments are working toward a common set of goals while guaranteeing that the policy is nimble enough to be implemented successfully across all departments.
#6 - Test, monitor, and evaluate
Social procurement has massive potential to turn the traditional concept of procurement on its head. As government defines goals and how they want to see those goals measured, they should consider qualitative and quantitative elements, including storytelling, as well as the capacity agencies need to conduct high-quality evaluations.
Social Procurement in Action
Social procurement is already being tested in this province. One example of social procurement in action is Choices for Youth’s (CFY) Impact Construction social enterprise's work to renovate several Newfoundland and Labrador Housing (NLHC) units on Beothuk Street in St. John’s. This project employed generated 8,000 employment hours for 24 youths, many of whom would otherwise not have the opportunity to access the labour market and learn a skilled trade.
This example of social enterprise employment resulted in $24,240 in paid income tax contributions and savings of $77,183 to the income support system. Each of the 24 youth participants received training in hard and soft skills and was paired with a support worker who helped them navigate the housing system, re-engage with the education system, connect with mental health supports, and reconnect with family.
The data shows that engaging youth in this manner has a meaningful impact on their social determinants of health. Youth engaged in CFY’s social enterprises exhibit a 25% increase in stable housing and a 20% increase in access to mental health supports.
As Newfoundland and Labrador navigates mounting challenges in its communities, from homelessness to mental health, its government should seek innovative solutions to ensure taxpayer investments can more effectively address these challenges. Social procurement can be part of this solution. By allocating funds that would already be spent toward generating social value and by prioritizing social value as part of the tendering process, our province can unlock more support and stability for its vulnerable populations.