Councillor seeks out a home town advantage when it comes to some of the city's Request for Bids

A Prince Rupert City Councillor is looking to do a little hometown shopping when it comes to some of the items that the City of Prince Rupert puts out for bid, with Councillor Barry Cunningham pointing towards a recent call for vehicles for the public works department as an area where preference should be given to local vendors.

The topic came up toward the end of  Monday's Council session when Councillor Cunningham asked about the purchasing policy in place at the city and if local businesses would get preferential treatment when it comes to the tender process.

"I just notice that there is a tender out for vehicles for the yard, or for city workers and I was wondering if businesses that pay taxes in this town will have preferential treatment. I noticed the last time we put out a tender for a vehicle it went to a company in Terrace and the difference in price was only 1500 dollars. And if you get a couple of warranty calls on a vehicle, that 1500 dollars is eaten up pretty quick ... I'd rather see a tendency towards people that pay taxes and employ people in our town, supplying the city with their vehicles and that"

Mr. Cunningham asked if there was a change required towards the city's policies on purchasing when it comes to some of the city's purchases.

The City's Financial Officer outlined how the current policy does not say that it is going to enable locally owned businesses to over-ride any other bids, adding that if Council wanted to entertain any changes that city staff could into the language of the requests.

The councillor followed up on Financial Officer's comments by that by noting how it would be good and how it was common sense and good business for the town and  an opportunity for the city to take some leadership in the area of buying locally.

You can review the discussion from the City's Video archive starting at the 15:30 minute mark




It's not the first time that the Councillor has tried to have City Council consider a bit of boost towards the local business community, he raised similar questions back in August of 2018 an inquiry at the time which did not seem to gain much traction around the council chamber.

The current City of Prince Rupert policy on purchases can be reviewed here.

You can find some of the recent Request for Bids from the city through our archive page here.

More notes of interest from Monday's City Council session can be found on Council Timeline feature, while a wider overview of council discussions is available from our Council Discussion Archive.

For a look at some of the news out of the city's commercial sector see our Business archive here.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.

City's Purchasing policies gain questions from Councillor Cunningham

How the city approaches its Request for Bids for services and goods made for a topic at the August 20th City Council session, with Councillor Barry Cunningham raising a number of questions with the City's Financial Officer Corinne Bomben.

The main thrust of his inquiries was whether the city approached its purchasing strategy by way of lowest price, or if it involves other factors for consideration prior to selection of the successful bids.

In response, the City's CFO outlined that cost and other qualitative factors were considered, including capabilities and letters of reference among the factors used.

Mr. Cunningham followed up with one final question on the theme, asking if local businesses were given preference if they are within a certain percentage of the lowest bid.

He was advised that it was not currently the city's policy.

You can explore the discussion further from the City's Video Archive, starting at the fifty four minute mark.





For more items of interest from the August 20th Council session see our Council Timeline feature here, or our archive of Notes from the session here.

A look at some of the past Request for Bids and final decisions on purchasing and service calls can be found from our archive page here.

A wider overview of City Council discussion topics can be found from our Council Discussion page.

To return to the most recent blog posting of the day, click here.