from the editor

Summit, Feb 2004 by Phillips, Anne

WELCOME TO THE FIRST of eight issues of Summit in 2004. You will, I hope, be pleasantly surprised by the changes we have made, not the least of which is a larger font for mature eyes - mine included.

Among the changes, Legal Notes pg. 19 will include new voices representing a variety of legal concerns. Our first guest columnists are Stephen Bauld and Kevin MacGuinness, co-authoring a piece on public-private partnerships (P3s) and procurement - the subject of much discussion at the November Canadian Council for Public-Private Partnerships conference.

Conference participants grumbled a bit about the slowness of P3 procurements, but also recognized, somewhat reluctantly, the rules under which government must operate - to say nothing about politics and public scrutiny. What became apparent is that for a P3 to be successful much work will be needed to achieve a balance between the priorities and risks that both government and the private sector each have when doing business with each other. And, equally as important will be building and maintaining the relationship between the partners.

Several articles in this issue of Summit speak to the relationship between buyers and sellers... and the ultimate client, the citizen and taxpayer. The people factor, (pg. 8) zeroes in on issues affecting the people doing the purchasing - today and tomorrow; Rick Bray explains (pg. 20) how contract management can be easier using some software tools; Micheal Tipman reveals his hard-earned expertise in that buy-sell relationship in the Keys to the kingdom (pg. 11); and wired.gov expresses hard truths about tendering and evaluating bids.

As well, Summit continues its coverage of the growing use of acquisition cards as a purchasing tool. In Getting credit (pg. 16), Catherine Morrison details the federal government program and provides an overview of the purchasing card program implementation in the provinces and territories.

As always, there is more to tell than space to tell it. But, there are seven more issues to come this year so stay tuned.