Award hails BLOG team as ‘unsung heroes’

Procurement and Contracting Division team recognized for their outstanding efforts are: Brendan Carver, Lynda Lee, Darcie Rolph, Danielle Wickens, Janee Kurk, Marcel Vignola, Michelle Hess, Shirley Choy, Janice Jorgensen, Dalis Hy, Jillian Baxter, Chad Sharratt, Celeine D’Amour, Geno Padovese, Dwayne Stewart, Corinne Readman, Veronica Hackett, Gina Mar, PO2 Joey Espineli, SLt Shaina Sowley, SLt Elias Kanoga, Kevin Lee and Justin Malchow.

Peter Mallett
Staff Writer
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The Base Logistics procurement team has been honoured for their outstanding efforts in keeping the supply chain up and running during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The Procurement and Contracting Division is a user-driven cell that provides procurement and contracting services to Maritime Forces Pacific (MARPAC) and lodger units.

Procurement managers and staff were recently named winners of the Canadian Institute for Procurement and Materiel Management’s Unsung Heroes Award for their superb handling the past year’s challenges. The award will be presented via Zoom on Sept. 29.

Procurement and Contracting Officer Brendan Carver says their work is normally a complex and complicated job, but when the COVID-19 pandemic began it presented a “highly volatile and unforeseen procurement challenge.” This was amplified by global supply chain shortages and a litany of other pandemic-related issues.

The Unsung Heroes Award is a proud moment for his unit, he says, because the recognition is coming from an organization that represents the greater procurement community within the Government of Canada.

“The procurement team’s dedication and professionalism shines through every day and truly enables operations of MARPAC, Joint Task Force Pacific, and their lodger units,” he explains.

Carver says procurement became a crucial element during the pandemic. Their work enabled MARPAC to seamlessly continue support of international security operations, domestic pandemic response operations, and immediate disaster response.

The 23-member Procurement and Contracting Division team successfully pushed forward several large initiatives in 2020 despite the trying circumstances, says Carver. This included new synthetic training environment purchases, contracting support to innovative distributed training required because of the pandemic, and mammoth efforts to provide the required services to enable warships such as HMCS Calgary to deploy in a safe manner.

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