Contract raises doubt about commitment to ‘buy local’

Several weeks ago, Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew fought hard to protect 76 jobs at Gimli’s Diageo Crown Royal distillery from threats by Ontario Premier Doug Ford to remove Crown Royal from liquor stores in that province.

“That’s Canadian whisky supporting good-paying Canadian jobs right here in Gimli, Manitoba,” Kinew said. “So, what do you say, Premier Ford? I think it tastes better when we work together as part of Team Canada.”

Given Kinew’s success on that issue, it’s fair to ask if he exercised the same level of effort and diligence with respect to another issue in Manitoba involving local jobs and millions of taxpayer dollars. It was reported on Wednesday that our NDP government has given Aramark Canada, an Ontario-based subsidiary of a massive corporation headquartered in the United States, a three-year, $36-million contract to provide bakery products to hospitals and correctional facilities in the province. Government officials claim the contract was competitively sourced, but Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan says he has spoken with three local businesses who could have provided the services outlined in the agreement.

He argues that the contract sets a bad example for others, and references the fact that the City of Winnipeg also awarded a contract to Aramark recently, which resulted in locally owned Salisbury House restaurants losing the opportunity to operate at two city-owned golf courses.

Public Service Delivery Minister Mintu Sandhu claimed last fall that the Aramark contract merged two former contracts — one for correctional facilities, another for hospitals — and saved the province $11 million. He says that Aramark employs more than 200 Manitobans, but Manitoba Food and Beverage executive director Michael Mikulak told reporters that directing government funds outside of the province is “really missing an incredible opportunity.”

“The cost pressures are there (for government),” he said, “but they can really use that (procurement) to develop those local food systems. Especially right now, when we’re in the middle of this trade war. It’s an important signal to send.”

We agree with Mikulak. This is a lost opportunity that could have been avoided. Given the hostile manner in which the U.S. government has treated Canadians on trade issues, the punitive tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on a range of Canadian products and services, the thousands of jobs lost because of those actions and the harm suffered by several key sectors of the Manitoba and national economies, it is difficult to fathom why any Canadian government would choose to send millions of Manitobans’ tax dollars south of the border.

The decision becomes even less comprehensible in light of the fact that Manitoba-based companies may have been able to provide those same services, and that the awarding of the contract to those companies could have helped to stimulate the growth of the province’s food services industry at such a fraught time for our economy.

Earlier in its mandate, members of the provincial government, including the premier himself, complained of instances when the previous Tory government had awarded government contracts to U.S. firms, particularly when there were Manitoba companies that could have provided the services contracted for. The shoe is now on the other foot but, given the intense trade pressures Canada is experiencing from the Trump administration, the economic stakes are much higher.

Kinew and his colleagues often encourage us to “buy Manitoban” and support the provincial economy, but this may be another discouraging example of politicians saying “do as I say, not as I do.” Given the billions of dollars the Manitoba government spends annually for various goods and services, it is possible, if not likely, that the Aramark contract is far from the only agreement that has resulted in public funds needlessly flowing to the south.

For that reason, we encourage the Kinew government to review its many agreements to ensure there are no additional instances of government funds being directed to American firms when local options were available. And, most of all, we suggest that the province follow its own advice and lead by example, by “buying Manitoban” whenever possible.