Includes all businesses with which the City of Kamloops contracts or purchases goods or services as well as all members of the purchasing staff and of the public who utilize the services of the Purchasing and Inventory Control Section.

The City of Kamloops will not extend preferential treatment to any vendor, including local companies. Not only is it against the law, it is not a good business practice as it limits fair and open competition for all vendors and is therefore a detriment to obtaining the best possible value for each tax dollar.

No gifts or favours are accepted by Purchasing and Inventory Control Section staff in return for business or the consideration of business. Purchasing staff do not publicly endorse one company in order to give that company an advantage over others.

The City of Kamloops is a member of a cooperative purchasing group. Made up of several public agencies, this group pools its expertise and resources in order to practise good value analysis and to purchase goods and services in volume to save tax dollars.

All members of the Purchasing and Inventory Control Section are encouraged to take advantage of the many opportunities provided to further their knowledge of good public purchasing principles and to maintain their skills.

Environmentally preferred products, projects, and services are those that have a lesser impact on human health and the environment when compared with competing products, projects, and services. This comparison may consider:

• raw materials acquisition (materials that are abundant in nature, natural and biodegradable, organically grown, fast growing, and sustainably harvested)
• production and manufacturing (energy efficient, the use of renewable energy or efficiently used materials)
• packaging
• distribution
• re-use (from recycled content or a recyclable material)
• operation
• maintenance
• disposal options

Environmentally preferred products, projects and services will have third party certification acceptable to the City of Kamloops.

Practical means the products, projects, and services can perform the intended function as well as those made from virgin materials and the cost of the environmentally preferred products, projects, and service reasonably approximates those made from virgin products. Reasonable cost may require a life cycle cost analysis of the product, project or service.