ACEC-SK was pleased to bring a SaskPower update to the membership in a Forum held in Regina on September 30, 2015.  This forum built on the successes that emanated from the inaugural meeting held the previous year.

The 2014 Forum became the impetus for a stronger working relationship between ACEC-SK and SaskPower, including a joint meeting between senior leadership of both organizations. Procurement was still identified as the number one issue, and over the past year progress has been made on a particular aspect of this important industry issue – standardized language in SaskPower’s engineering contracts.

Representatives from your Industry/Resources Committee met with SaskPower’s legal counsel to share concerns about the impacts to the consulting engineering industry of particular clauses within SaskPower engineering contracts, as well as implementation challenges. Members heard that ACEC-SK’s input will now be included in SaskPower’s full contract review, with the anticipated outcome of greater recognition of our industry’s needs where possible.

Presentations were also provided by Supply Chain Management – with a focus on the new Vendor Performance Evaluation process, as well as where SaskPower anticipates consulting engineers can assist with the delivery of projects for Transmission & Distribution, Power Production, and Properties.

SaskPower will continue to be a government entity offering a significant capital spend which means our members will continue to provide services to SaskPower. It is important, therefore, that ACEC-SK work with this Crown Corporation on business improvement issues of concern to our members.  The Industry/Resources committee will continue to move the industry’s interests forward on your behalf.  However, if you have any specific concerns you would like to raise with SaskPower, please direct them to the ACEC-SK office and we will forward them to the Industry/Resources Committee for consideration.