Bradford staff and council are working to reduce “internal red tape.”
Council approved changes to the town’s procurement policy, including new purchasing thresholds, based on a report from Vanessa Morum, manager of legal, risk management and procurement, during its regular meeting Feb. 6.
“Historically, procurement has been seen as a roadblock for staff getting what they need. I’d like to facilitate a better process for them to actually achieve that, create operational efficiencies where it can be created and foster local buying,” Morum said.
To support local vendors and suppliers for goods, services and construction, staff proposed increases to the town’s thresholds for:
- Low-cost procurement to $25,000 from $10,000
- Invitational procurement to between $25,001 and $100,000 from between $10,001 and $50,000
- Formal procurement to anything more than $100,000 from anything more than $50,000
“Increasing the thresholds, as set out above, supports the operational needs of the town as commodity prices increase due to inflationary pressures,” Morum said in the report. “The dollar does not stretch as far as it used to, and there does not seem to be any relief in sight.”
While this is intended to make it easier for staff to purchase local goods and services independently, Morum emphasized that procurement best practices are still recommended, and staff are expected to obtain three separate quotes to ensure value for money.
Deputy Mayor Raj Sandhu supported the recommendation, noting that in order to “play with the big league” policies can’t “hold our staff back.”
“We have a team that we can put our trust in, and they have proven they spend this money as if it was their own money,” he said, adding that the old amounts “ties the hands of our staff,” preventing them from getting things done for residents.
Ward 7 Coun. Peter Dykie agreed with “cutting red tape” and recalled local vendors previously being discouraged from applying to bid on town contracts.
Mayor James Leduc also supported the report, and buying locally to help those businesses and reduce environmental impacts of shipping.
According to the report, the changes come as part of a review scheduled every five years and respond to adjustments in the Building Ontario Businesses Initiative Act from spring 2022, based on regulations set to take effect on April 1, 2024.
That legislation requires public entities provide preference to Ontario businesses when purchasing goods or services when the cost is below certain thresholds. For municipalities, those thresholds are $30,300 for goods and $121,200 for services.
Other policy updates include housekeeping changes based on the amalgamation of legal, risk management and procurement into a single division in 2022, as well as integrating limits on spending and authority to sign off on spending.
Any contract awards exceeding the council-approved budget, or for non-competitive or emergency procurement, are reported to council once every quarter and staff recommended increasing the threshold for what is reported to anything more than $25,000 from $10,000 to match the new procurement threshold.
However, Ward 6 Coun. Nickolas Harper disagreed and requested an amendment to keep the reporting threshold at $10,000, as he felt generally that “transparency and trust in government it is at a pretty low point.”
Several councillors agreed, and while they expressed support cutting red tape and having faith in staff, they noted the importance of transparency.
Council approved the amendment to retain the reporting threshold for anything more than $10,000.
