City of Brantford Council unanimously supported a resolution calling to review and update the City’s Purchasing Policy during their Committee of the Whole, Planning and Administration meeting on Tuesday, March 18, 2025.
Given that the policy has not been comprehensively reviewed since March of 2020, Councillor Rose Sicoli, who moved the resolution, said it’s time to see how the City could improve the purchasing process and effectively manage public funds while fostering economic growth.
The resolution asks that Michael Bradley, CAO for the City of Brantford, work with staff to review opportunities to ensure a Canada-First approach in the City’s procurement policies.
It also directs staff to undertake a comprehensive review and update of the purchasing policy, and should include, but not be limited to, an evaluation surrounding internal spending limits, and “a review of the use of Approved Vendor’s lists, including how such lists are maintained and how procurement can be fairly and efficiently allocated to vendors on these lists.”
Finally, it asks staff to explore various methods to engage with and to promote the participation of local businesses in the City’s procurement initiatives while maintaining fairness to all bidders.
Speaking to the resolution, Sicoli said that while this was something she was already looking into previously, with tariff threats from the United States looming, this was the perfect time to review the purchasing policy.
“Our purchasing and procurement policy hasn’t been looked at by City staff, or had a comprehensive review since March of 2020, and I think we can all agree that quite a bit has changed in the landscape of the world and in business since pre-COVID,” she said. “When you layer on the tariffs in that, I think this is appropriately timed.”
She added that when she was looking into this with staff a few months ago, she noticed that the policy lacked a tool to balance best practices and fiscal responsibility with common sense and quality of services.
“…Common sense says that if we hire someone to be in charge of restraining loose or rabid animals but it takes them an hour to get here, a lot more damage can be done in that time,” said Sicoli. “Whereas, if we had the ability to prioritize someone who has the ability to be responsive, I think we would find that there’s some quality in making those decisions over necessarily the cheapest solution.”
She said while that’s where the idea to review the policy initially stemmed from, it’s since evolved and expanded into looking at how they can put tax dollars back into Brantford’s local economy.
“How do we look at the hard working local businesses and skilled trades workers, and how do we keep them going, [how do we keep] employing them and bolstering Brantford’s local economy?” said Sicoli. “We do that by reviewing our policy through outreach to local businesses, through our local Chamber of Commerce, through our downtown BIA and more. …I think it’s time that we get a little bit creative with how we’re doing business here. I think there are some ways where we can massage what we’re doing, in order to make sure that we truly are using taxpayer dollars in the best possible way.”
Councillor Gino Caputo thanked Sicoli for bringing the resolution forward and expressed his support.
“I do hope that as staff and as a community, that we stand behind this. …It’s imperative that we stand behind this united as one front, and ensure that we keep our business dollars local, or at least quasi-local in the theory of ‘competition breeds excellence,’” he said. “At the end of the day, we won’t be looking at more dollars, we’ll actually be spending them a lot wiser.”
Earlier in the meeting, Elizabeth Lorenzin, who Chairs the Brantford-Brant’s Chamber of Commerce advocacy committee, said the City had the organization’s full support.
“When Councillor Sicoli first raised this initiative with the Chamber and the advocacy committee, there was immediate support around both tables for this initiative. The Chamber was here two weeks ago on March 4 to indicate our support for the working group on tariffs and procurement, and we have continued to reach out to our membership and to the Chamber network to understand the impact of this economic crisis in our community,” said Lorenzin. “We know our members are challenged to manage the uncertainty, but I would like to stress that we sincerely appreciate the City taking this leadership initiative to focus its spending on local vendors in a fair and efficient manner. Our members are keen to engage and support each other and our community, and this initiative is an important tool to move that forward.”
The vote to endorse the resolution was then carried unanimously.
When likely passed on the Tuesday, March 25, Council meeting, staff will then be instructed to present the findings of the review, as well as the proposed revisions to the policy before Q3 of 2025.
The resolution, along with a letter asking for the review of the Municipal Act, Discrimination in Business Act, and any other provincial legislation that may prevent municipalities for supporting Canadian-based or local business, will also be sent to Will Bouma, MPP for Brantford-Brant, Premier Doug Ford, and Rob Flack, the new Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing.
Kimberly De Jong’s reporting is funded by the Canadian government through its Local Journalism Initiative.The funding allows her to report rural and agricultural stories from Blandford-Blenheim and Brant County. Reach her at kimberly.dejong@brantbeacon.ca.
