SaskBuilds has heard industry regarding incorporating industry input into public procurement processes! Now that the SaskBuild’s Board of Directors has approved a new over-arching policy regarding government procurement, we are seeing movement toward a more inclusive approach to the development, implementation, and renewal of procurement processes.
Industry believed this would be the case in 2013-2014 after extensive collaboration occurred regarding what our industry termed the development of the ‘generic’ procurement manual.  There were opportunities for industry to provide their input prior to government finalizing these high-level processes which the private sector appreciated.  
However, in our view the critical missing piece was consideration of industry-specific procurement processes.  What was rolled out could have been better if industry had been included in discussions at the front end prior to finalization of these processes.  Instead, what industry was left with was chasing after government about what the public sector thought were likely small things, but ultimately were big things in the eyes of not only our industry, but many other industries as well.  The private sector could have collaborated early in the development process and avoided many of the pitfalls we face today.
The good news is that there is renewed interest in engaging the private sector in the development of public procurement processes.  You can be assured that ACEC-SK will have a seat at the table to look out the needs of this industry as part of the larger collaborative initiative.