Ottawa takes step toward ‘ethical purchasing’ policy
Tobin Dalrymple, Ottawa Citizen
A report outlining the city’s ethical purchasing policy, which aims to ensure a “sweat-free” and fair-trade friendly Ottawa, was accepted Tuesday by a committee without any issue or debate.
The policy will now go to council later this month, and if it passes that point, will set-up a criteria for who the city will deal with. The policy makes clients who make clothing and agricultural products disclose the location and standards of its factories to make sure they are in line with international human-rights standards.
The city spends about $1.7-million a year on garments for its workers, including bus drivers, firefighters and by-law officers. Stakeholders who wrote the “no sweat” policy say it will focus primarily on preventing companies using sweat-shop labour from winning city contracts.
But the policy will also bring fair-trade products, such as coffee and tea, to municipal cafeterias.
Ottawa could be the fourth major city in Canada to adopt an ethical purchasing policy if it gets council’s green light following Vancouver, Toronto and Calgary.