The 17 municipalities of the Winnipeg Metropolitan Region completed a detailed action plan in 2017 to advance common objectives together. Many of their priorities have seen strong progress, but tackling some of the bigger projects was always limited by the capacity to move budget or generate new funds for research, seed money or pilot projects that would benefit all. They needed a pool of resources they could draw upon for projects like these.
After much research they found the key: coordinated, collective purchasing could provide better value for taxpayer dollars on purchases today, and be a source of revenue to build shared capacity, that would result in further savings, ultimately creating shared resources for projects and programs on the ground.
With the help of a highly respected business advisory council, the structure of JohnQ was outlined. The next critical step was to secure at least, the benefit of the doubt from key stakeholders in the process – elected officials, administrators and staff, and business leaders.