Read the blog post to learn more.

Buy Social Canada is adding an Operations Coordinator and a Social Procurement Consultant to our small and dynamic team. Both positions start February 2022.

British Columbia Social Procurement Initiative (BCSPI) is kicking off the new year with another Purchasing Power series event that asks, how can social procurement support diversity and inclusion?

We'll be joined by Nerissa Allen, President and co-founder of Black Business Association of BC, and Dugan Selkirk, Business Advisor for the Entrepreneurs with Disabilities program at Community Futures BC.

Register for free now, and explore other BCSPI events.

The City of Vancouver passed their Community Benefit Agreement (CBA) Policy in October 2018. It mandates that developers of future large-scale sites (exceeding 45,000 m2) will commit to actions, targets, or outcomes in the following areas: Local Targeted Employment, Social Procurement, Local Procurement, and Supplier Diversity.

At the New St. Pauls Hospital, Buy Social Canada works with PCL Constructors Westcoast Inc. as their independent Third Party Monitor contractor, to support them in meeting the CBA rezoning condition requirements. The new hospital is being built a few blocks away from the Downtown Eastside, sometimes referred to as one of Canada’s poorest postal codes.

Since breaking ground at the new site in March 2021, PCL has created positive social impact in the community - and a recent story shared by EMBERS Staffing demonstrates this well:

"After three months of working at EMBERS Staffing, Aurora received an employment offer from PCL Construction at their new St. Paul’s construction site, where she now works. We are so thrilled for Aurora with this wonderful opportunity. Aurora’s EMBERS journey is a testament to the power of hard work, passion and dedication."

Read this Q&A with Aurora and PCL Site Superintendent Zane to learn more.

Chandos Construction, a founding Buy Social Pledge Leader, has shared the multitude of ways they made impact in 2021. They are true industry leaders showing what is possible when social value is at the heart of business.

Here's a snippet of what they shared about their work with social procurement:

"Social procurement is a way to leverage the buying power of our supply chain for good in Canadian society. And we are pleased to say that we spent more than $1 million this year with impact organizations - such as B Corps, social enterprises, Indigenous businesses. We’ve established a goal to shift at least five per cent of our addressable spend towards impact organizations by 2025."

Learn more about Chandos's impact in 2021.

Buy Social Canada is proud to offer a tailor-made social procurement readiness course for the Black businesses who will take part in the Black Business Association of BC's (BBABC) Sustainability Incubator this year.

The Sustainability Incubator will be offered for free to 10 entrepreneurs, thanks to funding from the Government of Canada, and also includes mentorship, mental health supports, and strategic business development work.

If this program applies to you, get your applications in by January 14.

Learn more.

Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) invites Canadian LGBTQ2+-owned or -led businesses and businesses owned or led by persons with disabilities to complete an online questionnaire to provide information about their businesses.

Respond the the request for businesses owned or led by persons with disabilities here by January 21, 2022.

Respond to the request for LGBTQ2+-owned or -led businesses here by January 28, 2022.

Congratulations to Lauren for creating this excellent promotional video as part of Buy Social Canada's Storytelling for Social Value Suppliers course.

Lauren is the social enterprise coordinator for Level Up! Employment and Training, a paid training program run by Resource Assistance for Youth (RAY). Learn more about how RAY, a Certified Social Enterprise in Winnipeg, supports youth in Manitoba and watch the above video.

Through their Reside program, Raising the Roof renovated a single family house in downtown Toronto that was deemed “uninhabitable” by the City of Toronto and sat empty for years. Now, it will be a home for a refugee family.

In addition to providing housing for a newly landed family, by partnering with certified social enterprise Building Up, the program prevented ongoing homelessness for 38 others through the hands-on training and support they received while renovating the house.

Learn more about this life-changing project.

Mission Possible, a community economic development organization based in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, supports individuals with employment training and individual coaching in their Employment Readiness Program, and offers supportive, transitional work opportunities in their Buy Social Canada certified social enterprise MP Maintenance.

Watch the video above to see Shawna's powerful story of impact, and learn more about the power of social enterprise.

Persons Community Solutions (PCS), a certified social enterprise that works with government institutions, community organizations, social enterprises and private companies to improve their ability to solve community, safety, wellbeing and security issues by providing capacity building and place-based trainings, is a project partner on the Community Safety Hosts Program in Winnipeg.

They are providing the current employment component of the Community Safety Hosts initiative, which is led by Fearless R2W. Other project partners include NECRC and the Winnipeg Public Libraries.

Learn more about the program in action in their recent CBC profile.