Saskatchewan NDP details Hire Saskatchewan plan to tie procurement to local businesses

The Saskatchewan NDP is putting out a plan that would have government contracts hire Saskatchewan workers first for any jobs the province needs to be done.

Announced earlier this month, the Sask NDP states that they "will retool the province’s existing procurement Crown, SaskBuilds, to ensure that Saskatchewan workers and businesses are put first for public contracts, like building and maintaining public infrastructure."

Leader Carla Beck states that the change in policy would be to help local workers and businesses.

"When we're spending public dollars, public tax dollars on public infrastructure in the province, what we said is we need to retool SaskBuilds, the provincial crown, to ensure that not only are we getting the best price, just taking the lowest bid. We need to look at the full value when it comes to those bids, looking at prioritizing Saskatchewan workers and Saskatchewan businesses through the tender process so that we're getting the best value."

Beck says that contracts that go to out-of-province businesses should instead go to local workers, so the province gets the best value from those.

They would also look to break apart larger contracts into smaller ones so different companies in local communities can work on those.

"Right across the province, when we're looking at investments in public infrastructure, what we hear a lot from businesses is that if the RFP were broken down into smaller pieces, for example with the P3 schools where there was one big tender for 18 schools in the province if they were broken down, local businesses would be able to compete and do that work we know that Saskatchewan workers, Saskatchewan businesses do world-class work and we have people who want to be working here in the province."

While a move to supporting local businesses may increase costs for the province, Beck says they could even out with increased employment from the projects.

"This is a way to ensure that we're putting Saskatchewan people to work. People who pay taxes here at home, that we're supporting other Saskatchewan businesses. It's a way to increase the workforce. One of the things that we heard when we were making this announcement up in Saskatoon was that the more local jobs are available here in the province, the easier it is to attract people into the trades, for example."