Building Public Trust Through Modern Procurement: The City of London’s Transformation

The City of London is reshaping procurement as a core public trust function-one that protects public funds, enables timely service delivery, strengthens institutional confidence, and creates measurable civic value.

Over the past year, the City is undertaking one of the most significant procurement transformations in its recent history. This work has included modernization of the Procurement of Goods and Services Policy, stronger corporate oversight, greater consistency across the organization, expanded workforce capability, and implementation of Ontario’s new domestic supply chain requirements.

The transformation reflects a broader shift in public procurement. Municipal procurement is no longer viewed only as a process for purchasing goods and services. It is an enterprise function that supports infrastructure delivery, service continuity, supplier accountability, market confidence, economic resilience, and responsible stewardship of public resources.

The City’s updated Procurement of Goods and Services Policy was approved by Council in June 2025 and came into effect on October 1, 2025. The policy established a more contemporary and accountable framework for how procurement decisions are planned, approved, documented, and managed.

The modernization introduced clearer delegated authorities, stronger procurement planning expectations, greater consistency in competitive processes, improved controls for limited tendering and emergency procurement, and formal requirements for contract changes, supplier performance, dispute management, suspension, and public reporting.

The intent was not simply to update procurement rules. It was to create a common corporate standard that supports better decisions, earlier planning, stronger documentation, and greater confidence in how public funds are committed.

Centralization has been an important part of this work. Procurement and Supply Services has strengthened its enterprise role by providing common templates, consistent approval processes, coordinated procurement advice, improved records, and clearer oversight across the full procurement lifecycle.

This model creates stronger procurement assurance while allowing service areas to remain accountable for operational needs, technical requirements, budgets, and contract delivery. It also helps the City identify risks earlier, reduce inconsistent practices, and support suppliers through clearer and more predictable processes.

A modern procurement framework, however, depends on the people applying it. Following implementation of the new policy, the City launched a broad corporate learning program to build procurement capability across the organization. Eight formal training sessions were delivered to approximately 400 City employees. These sessions were supported by updated templates, forms, guidance materials, targeted workshops, and direct engagement with service areas.

The training focused on the full procurement lifecycle, including early planning, sourcing method selection, delegated authority, evaluation integrity, documentation, contract administration, supplier performance, and the responsibilities shared by project owners, Procurement, Finance, Legal Services, technical advisors, and contract administrators.

This initial training is one component of a broader and ongoing enterprise learning model being developed as part of the transformation. The City is working to formalize periodic procurement training, incorporate procurement education into the onboarding of new City employees, and provide virtual, on-demand learning for staff. This sustained approach will help reinforce consistent practices, support long-term adoption, and maintain procurement awareness as policies, market conditions, and regulatory requirements continue to evolve.

This was an important cultural shift. Procurement compliance is not the responsibility of one division. It is a shared corporate accountability that directly affects service delivery, financial stewardship, supplier confidence, audit readiness, and public trust.

The City’s transformation was further accelerated by the implementation of Ontario’s Buy Ontario requirements. These requirements introduced new domestic supply chain considerations into applicable municipal capital infrastructure, construction, and related procurements.

London responded by developing a controlled and practical implementation model that supports Ontario and Canadian supply chains while preserving fairness, transparency, competition, value for money, and compliance with trade agreement obligations.

The City adopted a project-specific commitment approach rather than applying a single generic requirement to every procurement. This model is supported by standardized solicitation language, internal assessment tools, supplier declarations, verification rights, and structured identification of major goods, materials, subcontractors, and supply chain content. The work required close collaboration among Procurement, Legal Services, Finance, Infrastructure, Facilities, Fleet, consultants, and project teams. It also required careful consideration of market capacity, project timelines, affordability, supply availability, domestic content, operational requirements, and legal obligations. The result is a framework that advances domestic economic resilience without weakening competitive integrity or creating unnecessary barriers for suppliers.

The next stage of the City’s transformation will continue to focus on enterprise procurement planning, contract assurance, supplier performance, sustainable procurement, data intelligence, compliance reporting, and workforce capacity. These priorities will allow the City to move from process compliance toward stronger foresight, better commercial decisions, improved supplier outcomes, and clearer evidence of public value.

The most important outcome of this transformation is not a new policy, template, or approval form. It is a stronger procurement culture-one that understands the connection between procurement decisions and the public’s confidence in municipal government.

The City of London’s Procurement and Supply Services team has helped lead this change while continuing to support a significant volume of operational, infrastructure, construction, professional service, and emergency procurement activity. The team has demonstrated that procurement can protect process integrity while also enabling innovation, accelerating priorities, and supporting critical public services.

As London welcomes procurement professionals from across Ontario to the 2026 OPBA Annual Conference, we are proud to share a transformation built around trust, transparency, resilience, accountability, and civic value.

London is known as the Forest City but it is also a growing and evolving municipality investing in infrastructure, services, community wellbeing, and a modern public service. We look forward to welcoming OPBA members to London and continuing the conversations that will shape the next era of public procurement.