The progress of social procurement across Canada is unprecedented and encouraging. People and organizations are working together to add value to procurement in multiple ways; through Indigenous procurement, sustainable procurement, benefit driven procurement, and more. Purchasers are increasingly seeking out social value suppliers like social enterprises, diverse-owned businesses, Indigenous businesses, and social purpose organizations to buy from.

To get a better picture of the social procurement movement in Canada, Buy Social Canada surveyed our consulting clients and Social Purchasing Partners about where they are on their social procurement journeys, lessons learned, and implementation progress to date. We heard from 17 partners and clients who worked with us in 2022.

This report shares an overview of social procurement activities across Canada, as well as findings from our survey of clients and partners, and a jurisdictional scan of Canadian public sector purchasers with social procurement policies or programs.