Supplier Diversity Makes
Inroads in Atlantic Canada
While they are the country’s least diverse, the coastal provinces are
encouraging the creation of new procurement policies.
By Susan Baka
Supplier diversity is not a well-known concept in Atlantic Canada, mirroring the situation in the rest of the
country. Awareness is starting to build, however, thanks to
the trailblazing efforts of entrepreneurs as well as organizations representing diverse groups. “We’re just getting the
conversation going,” says Paula Sheppard, executive director of the Newfoundland and Labrador Organization of
Women Entrepreneurs (NLOWE),
which serves as a regional partner for
WEConnect Canada in certifying
women-owned businesses for supplier diversity programs. “We’ve
been working on the awareness piece
and now, we have to roll out with the
benefits,” she says.
With a large offshore oil industry,
Newfoundland’s industrial projects,
like the Hebron Project—a $14 billion development led by ExxonMobil Canada—hold the most promise
Sheppard
for diverse suppliers. Although
the province does not have any procurement legislation
dictating requirements for supplier diversity, it tries to
encourage policies within projects. It now has a business
access strategy to complement the Atlantic Accord, which
gives first, full, and fair opportunity for procurement and
hiring in the offshore industry to businesses in Atlantic
Canada before those in the rest of Canada and the U.S. The
Hebron Project is the first to implement a business access
strategy designed to encourage opportunities for women
business owners to supply the project. This was followed
by a February 2012 report from the Hebron Public Review
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May/June 2013 MBE
September/October 2012 MBE
Commission that included a recommendation to support
gender diversity in its supply chains.
Sheppard is pleased with the result: NLOWE’s presentation to the commission in December 2011 emphasized
the need for a formal supplier diversity program in order
to reach the project’s goal of leaving a lasting economic
legacy for the province. “We need to be innovative and
move beyond the traditional methods of doing business,”
she says, adding that NLOWE will work with project
partners to he