It's time to transcend the dogma and practices of extraction economics that result in social exclusion and income inequality. It's time for social enterprise, social procurement, and social value finance to converge to create community capital. It’s time for Marketplace Revolution.

Social enterprise leader David LePage shares how business and government alike can improve resiliency, public perception and demonstrated impact by switching to a ground-breaking social value framework.

Marketplace Revolution: From Concentrated Wealth to Community Capital relaunches today, April 9, in e-book, audiobook and paperback formats. If you have already purchased a copy, encourage your friends and colleagues to pre-order theirs now.

Get your copy on our website, or on Amazon.

Join Buy Social Canada as we share the latest best practices for social procurement implementation at Marketplace Impact: Social Procurement in Action. This event will focus on people and organizations who are activating purchasing to achieve community goals in a variety of ways.

This will be a free, engaging event to learn about social procurement lessons and stories. The event features insights from speakers, a new resource for CBAs, Social Procurement Champion Award winners celebration, and opportunities to network with peers.

Register now and share the event with your peers.

The BCSPI co-chairs are pleased to announce that BCSPI project management will be transitioning from Scale Collaborative to Buy Social Canada. BCSPI will continue to be available to local governments and institutions across BC to support social procurement success.

Buy Social Canada has been involved with the initiative since 2019 as aprojected delivery partner, and we're excited to take on management while continuing to deliver training, tools and support to advance social procurement implementation in BC's public sector.

At a time of uncertainty and change, local governments need every tool in their toolkit to address today's challenges. Procurement is one of those tools.

Join us for a webinar to reflect on the BCSPI to date, and how a collaborative, local government-led initiative supported 45+ local governments and institutions to explore and shift their procurement practices, generating significant outcomes.

BCSPI co-chairs Mayor Vickey Brown and Councillor Jenna Stoner, along with representatives from the project delivery team and other key players, will share lessons learned from the growth and impact of BCSPI.

Register now.

We're pleased to welcome Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM) as the newest Buy Social Canada Social Purchasing Partner - Engage Member.

The HRM has had a Social Procurement Policy since 2020, and we look forward to working together as they advance their social procurement journey.

NACCA, the National Aboriginal Capital Corporations Association, is a network of over 50 Indigenous Financial Institutions (IFIs) dedicated to stimulating economic growth for all Indigenous people in Canada.

Recently, NACCA released new Indigenous Business Definitions, a national set of consistent definitions that will help direct the procurement of goods and services to legitimate Indigenous businesses across the country. Created by a coalition of Indigenous economic organizations, the definitions can be used by public and private sector actors at all levels—including provincial, territorial, and municipal governments and a Canadian business of any size that seeks to promote economic reconciliation through Indigenous procurement.

Read the National Indigenous Business Definitions Guide to learn more.

Buy Social Canada Community Champions are the individuals and organizations that support a shared mission to grow the social value marketplace and social economy within their networks and communities.

Centre for Social Enterprise Development (CSED) has been a longtime partner of Buy Social Canada.

Based in Ottawa, they enable the development and growth of the social enterprise ecosystem through consulting and training.

Common Good Solutions is another longtime collaborator in the social enterprise ecosystem.

Based in Halifax, they support clients, including governments, organizations and entrepreneurs, to create innovative, financially sustainable solutions that meet community needs. They provide a wide range of services, including consulting, coaching, and online learning.

A recent article from Australian publication The Fifth Estate shares learnings from social procurement implementation on construction and infrastructure projects, referencing new research from University of Technology Sydney academics Distinguished Professor Martin Loosemore and Dr Suhair Alkilani.

It's interesting - and affirming - to see that the learnings and recommendations shared by Loosemore and Alkilani echo Buy Social Canada's best practices for implementing social procurement through CBAs or other measures on infrastructure and development projects in Canada.

Learn more about their findings, or explore additional social procurement in construction resources and supports in the Canadian context on our website.

Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) has launched a new social purchasing policy intended to increase access for businesses owned by Indigenous Peoples and racialized people.

“The university’s new social purchasing policy was built on the foundational idea of ‘buying with impact’,” says Vince Carinci, senior director of strategic procurement and payment services at TMU. “By addressing systemic barriers within the university’s purchasing processes, we are creating a pathway for employees to engage smaller businesses owned by Indigenous and equity-deserving groups that may not otherwise have had a chance to become part of our supply chain.”

One of the people involved in the new policy development at TMU previously attended Buy Social Canada's Social Procurement Professional Certificate course. We're happy to see the learnings from the course represented in their policy.

Last month our COO Tori Williamson joined Social Purchasing Partner Destination Vancouver and social value business Soap for Hope for a workshop at the BC Tourism Industry Conference, sharing information on the Guide to Social Procurement for Tourism, Hospitality and Events along with lessons learned in advancing social procurement in Vancouver.

It was great to share more information about social procurement with the tourism sector.

Over the past 11 years, Certified Social Enterprise MOSAIC's Annual Job Fair has helped connect over 21,000 job seekers with 600+ employers. This year marks the 12th Annual Job Fair in Vancouver.

Social purchasers: Join the event as an exhibitor to connect with 3,400+ job seekers, and meet your goals for inclusive employment and training. Exhibitors who have already signed on include: Government of BC, City of Surrey, BC EHS, Parq Vancouver, Providence Health Care, Fraser Health, BC Housing, Jacob Bros Construction, and more.

Social enterprises and community intermediaries: Share this event with job seekers in your network. Admission is free.

"Social finance leverages capital to achieve social, cultural, and environmental goals along with financial returns. It’s a way for social enterprises and impact organizations to add flexible capital where other funders may be unwilling to fund."

Certified Social Enterprise Purppl's recent blog post shares insights and resources to help businesses understand social finance. Their tools are highly educational and useful for those wanting to learn more about social finance for social impact.

Read the blog post to learn more, and download their Social Finance Fundamentals resource.

Registration is now open for CSED's Social Enterprise Bootcamp (SEB) 2024.

SEB 2024 is a high impact incubation program for social entrepreneurs who want to validate their startup idea and create a solid foundation to launch. It will take place online and in person in Ottawa from May to October 2024, and uses a high engagement, blended learning model that incorporates individual and group-based work.

Learn more about the bootcamp, and apply by April 30 to be considered.

Also a Buy Social Canada Community Champion, SEDA is the provincial backbone organization for those engaged in community economic development in Saskatchewan.

Since 1984, they have assisted communities to become investment ready.

Based in Ontario, Smelling Pink pioneers a ground breaking Smell Therapy program dedicated to combating isolation among seniors by harnessing the transformative power of scent learning.

Smelling Pink is also a sister social enterprise to The Scented L'Air.

Musey is an ethical and sustainable retail store based in London, ON, that sells handmade artisinal products that are sourced primarily from small, women owned businesses in Sri Lanka.

Musey reinvest a majority of their profits to support artisans through micro loans, micro grants, financial literacy and business growth.