Registration is now open! 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.

Social procurement continues to expand across the country as governments, institutions, corporates and non-profits see the power of purchasing to create healthy, vibrant communities. While interest grows, more purchasers are implementing, innovating, and iterating to move from policy to action.

This year we're also celebrating 10 years of Buy Social Canada. We will launch a new free resource, the Community Benefits in Construction Design Guide. This Guide builds off our decade of experience advocating with and supporting the work of localized community benefits networks, designing policy for municipal governments, and working on the ground for CBA projects like the New St. Paul's Hospital. We can't wait to share it with you at the Marketplace Impact event.

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

Register now and share the event with your peers.

Speakers will be announced soon.

Thank you to Chandos Construction for sponsoring this event.

Join us tomorrow for a webinar exploring Social Enterprise Franchise Models. We'll be joined by special guest speakers Carla Leon, President and CEO of Just Like Family Home Care, and Rebecca Sherbino, Co-Executive Director of The Raw Carrot, who bring a wealth of knowledge and experience running social enterprise franchises in Canada.

This webinar is for you if you are:

Register now.

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.

In 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 will relaunch on April 9, 2024 in e-book, audiobook and paperback formats. If you have already purchased a copy, encourage your friends and colleagues to pre-order theirs today.

Pre-order your copy now via our website, or on Amazon.

In June 2024, David LePage will go on a national book tour to share learnings and and host a local conversation for the change we need to see, as he takes Marketplace Revolution: From Concentrated Wealth to Community Capital to five Canadian cities:

More details will be announced soon.

Register now to take advantage of early bird pricing and join a virtual cohort of the Social Procurement Professional Certificate course. Take a deep dive on social procurement design, implementation and culture change.

April 9, 16, 23 and 30, 2024 from 10am – 12pm PT / 1 – 3pm ET

(Registration deadline: April 8)

Register now to save your spot.

September 4, 11, 18 and 25 2024 from 10am – 12pm PT / 1 – 3pm ET.

Here's what some past participants have said about the course:

“I found the whole course to be useful and engaging and provided a well-rounded learning experience. I think most of us entered the program thinking how it would help us shape our policy and effectively communicate it. I think what most of us obtained was a much larger cultural appreciation for the impact social procurement can make.” 

“The Social Procurement Professional Certificate course was an engaging and refreshing course with a good mix of theory and practice with plenty of opportunity for discussion. I have nothing but praise for the way the course was delivered and the content. The course modules were clear and concise and were incredibly informative with an abundance of examples and tools that you can really use! Buy Social Canada really live what they teach which makes it a very rich learning experience. Regardless of the stage you’re at in your social procurement journey, I highly recommend taking this certification course!”

Learn more about the course.

As Buy Social Canada's Social Procurement Coordinator, Em will be collaborating with partners across Canada and supporting team members to facilitate the important community benefit work of Buy Social Canada and our network. You are likely to meet Em in partner meetings, project work sessions, and community engagements.

Their professional background is rooted in relationship-building, socially-responsible business practices, and thinking critically about current policies for greater benefit to society. They have worked on several projects with clients across British Columbia that aimed to realize their organization's environmental, economic, social, and cultural goals.

After graduating from Royal Roads University and spending their final semester in Belgium, Em relocated to what is now known as Sidney, BC, or SET,TINES ("chest sticking out") in the WSANEC dialect of SENCOTEN. The small town vibe and close proximity to nature reminds them of their upbringing in rural mainland BC. On their free time, Em loves writing fairytales, practicing yoga, and cheering on the plants in the garden.

The Ontario Public Buyers Association is hosting Buy Social Canada and Blakes to discuss social procurement implementation in the public sector.

With the interest in social procurement increasing across Canada, many public buyers wonder how to implement it in their organizations. In this virtual session, Tori Williamson, COO of Buy Social Canada, and Marianne Smith, Partner at Blakes, will share information and answer questions on how public buyers can implement social procurement into all types of procurement processes, all while staying within the trade agreement obligations.

Register by March 25. $20 for OPBA members, $35 for non-members.

Our CEO Elizabeth Chick-Blount is featured in this article in The Philanthropist Journal alongside peers from Momentum, Imagine Canada and others, discussing how diversity can go beyond HR policies and practices and be included in procurement as well.

“The collective effort of leveraging social value from purchasing has a powerful and positive ripple effect in our communities.” - Elizabeth Chick-Blount

Read the full article for more insights.

Ontario Nonprofit Network's (ONN) new social procurement briefing note advocates for improved inclusion of non-profit social enterprises and co-ops in government purchasing and for social procurement overall.

Ontario recently launched Supply Ontario which is intended to help modernize the province's public sector procurement practices. ONN's specific recommendations to take advantage of this update shared in the briefing note include:

Learn more.

Community Benefits Ontario recently submitted a letter outlining the benefits of community benefit agreements to the Ontario Government as part of a pre-budget consultation.

One of the recommendations includes:

"Develop an Ontario Community Benefits Policy in consultation with local community benefits networks across Ontario. Moving forward, embed Community Benefits Agreements in all public infrastructure projects to create inclusive and equitable economic development."

Community Benefits Ontario (CBO) is a provincial network focused on community benefits policy and implementation in Ontario. CBO members, including Buy Social Canada, work to promote community benefit agreements in communities across the province.

The City of Campbell River recently gave notice of its intent to provide a direct award agreement with 4VI, a Certified Social Enterprise, for the provision of operations management, administration, and strategic services at a visitor information centre for a one-year term.

It's great to see public purchasers making use of trade agreement exemptions which allow direct awards to social enterprises and other non-profits.

Join this webinar hosted by Openroom in partnership with Buy Social Canada Certified Social Enterprise Consolidated Credit Canada.

The webinar will cover:

Learn more and register now.

Certified Social Enterprise RAINscapeTO is an eco-landscaping social enterprise that designs, implements and maintains beautiful and earth-friendly gardens. They offer design and installation of sustainable gardens, and support local food production and the use of native plants.

The Project Manager will be part of RAINscapeTO’s leadership team and will lead the planning, delivery and reporting for GreenForceTO, a Green Workforce Development project initiated by the city of Toronto.

Learn more about the role. Application deadline: March 8.