The Edmonton Police Commission (Commission) may approve any procurement agreement related to the powers, duties, or functions of the Commission or the Edmonton Police Service (Service) where the expenditure is included within the total budget established by Edmonton City Council (Council).
Definitions:
CONTRACT: means a written accord wherein the parties to the accord exchange mutually enforceable promises for consideration with the intention to create legally binding obligations.
POLITICALLY SENSITIVE PROCUREMENTS: means that the media and/or public has or is expected to take an interest in the procurement.
PROCUREMENT: means the acquisition of goods, services, construction, or intellectual property rights from a supplier, but does not include the acquisition of land.
SINGLE SOURCE: means a non-competitive procurement process in which suppliers do not compete for the option to enter into a contract with the Commission due to a business decision to use a single source of supply when other sources exist within the market for the desired good, service, construction, or intellectual property right.
SOLE SOURCE: means a non-competitive procurement process in which suppliers do not compete for the option to enter into a contract with the Commission because there is only one source of supply for the good, service, construction, or intellectual property available to the Commission or Service within the market.
Guidelines:
- The Commission may only approve procurement agreements that comply with applicable trade All procurements shall be conducted in a manner that is open, fair, and transparent.
- The Commission may delegate the authority to approve procurement agreements to the Chief of Police (Chief), including the authority allowing the Chief to further delegate.
- The Service will bring information reports (verbal or written) to the Commission on all politically sensitive procurements prior to the procurement being sent out or as soon as the sensitive nature of the procurement is identified.
- The Commission will further determine if any of the politically sensitive reports received need to be presented to Council.
- The Service will bring information reports on all competitive tenders over 10 million dollars to the Commission.
- In general, there is an expectation that contracts over the applicable Trade Agreement thresholds awarded by the Commission and/or the Service will be the result of a public tender and a competitive procurement process unless they fall within clause 7 below.
- In unique and specialized circumstances sole source and single source non-competitive contracts may be Non-competitive procurement processes should be used only in situations where there are substantial business reasons that outweigh the use of a competitive procurement process. All non-competitive procurement processes should be accompanied by sufficient documentation to establish that only one supplier can meet the requirements of the procurement.
- The Service will bring reports for approval to the Commission on all non-competitive procurements with a value of over $1,000,000.
- The Chief of Police must, at least once annually, report to Council’s Standing Committee, as per City of Edmonton Bylaw 16620 – City Administration Bylaw, all procurement agreements arising from non-competitive procurement processes where the value of the agreement exceeds $250,000.
- All Commission procurement activities not related to the Service or Service activities shall be actively managed by the Executive Director using the process outlined in Appendix F – Contracting and Procurement Procedures.
References:
- City of Edmonton Bylaw 16620 – City Administration Bylaw
- EPC Policy Manual – Appendix F – Procurement and Contracting Procedures
Revised September 18, 2025