Charter Champion of the Month: SaskPower

SaskPower, a highly influential organization in the province, has made the commitment to support women-owned businesses by signing WESK’s Saskatchewan Women Entrepreneurship Charter. SaskPower serves more than 538,000 customers and employs over 3,100 permanent staff, making them the principal electric utility company. This article marks the launch of WESK’s Charter Champion Stories, where each month, a new Charter Champion will be showcased.

“SaskPower firmly believes in advancing women entrepreneurs in Saskatchewan and will continue to actively look for opportunities to do so, which is why we have signed onto the Charter,” said SaskPower President and CEO Mike Marsh. “SaskPower is committed to a sustainable supply chain and this partnership with WESK will allow SaskPower to continue to build a diverse chain of suppliers and help support women-owned businesses in Saskatchewan.”

SaskPower has a goal to build new partnerships that improve innovation, competitiveness, and drive value. As part of their supplier diversity program, they have made significant strides in developing their Indigenous suppliers. They are proud to now include women-owned businesses into their initiative.

“This partnership fits so nicely with SaskPower’s Diversity and Inclusion strategy,” said Kathy McCrum, Vice President, Human Resources & Safety. “We have put significant focus on changing our traditional norms to allow for more space and opportunities for women to succeed at SaskPower. We know we have more work to do, but our executive leadership is committed to continuing to take intentional action to ensure women are more representative in our workforce and in our supply chain.”

SaskPower is looking forward to executing on principle one of the Charter, “Procure with Her”. They have a list of goals, including establishing procurement baselines and targets for women-owned suppliers, advocating for gender diversity in the supply chain and creating training for women looking to bid on contracts. By signing the Charter and working on these objectives, SaskPower is proving that Saskatchewan is paving the way for gender entrepreneurship parity.

Expanding supplier diversity to include women-owned businesses is a team effort at SaskPower. Their procurement team is excited to be part of the initiative to ensure a diverse and inclusive supply chain. SaskPower looks forward to showing real results that will support a future of equal opportunities.

Rhea Brown leads SaskPower’s procurement area and says that this focus on supplier diversity is part of being a sustainable company.  “SaskPower is expected to be a leader and support positive change.  We are already benefiting from diversity in our supply chain.  By encouraging equity and inclusion within our vendors, we are seeing better agility, innovation, and competition.  It’s a good business decision for SaskPower.” 

The Saskatchewan Women Entrepreneurship Charter is an initiative launched by WESK to address the gender entrepreneurship gap in our province. The charter is comprised of four principles to provide guidance and examples as to how you and your organization can best support local women-owned businesses.