Canadian Furniture Task Group
Background
The BIFMA Canadian Furniture Task Group (CFTG) was formed as an ad hoc group of furniture industry manufacturers, suppliers, and dealers to address the Canadian government's interest in reducing procurement costs. The task group was concerned about government moving to a sole source contracting model that would be short-sighted and ineffective. The CFTG partnered with other industries facing similar restrictions on competition to establish a communication network and share progress across sectors. BIFMA worked with a Canadian lobby firm to express our industry's concerns to government agency heads and Members of Parliament. The effort was successful and Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) formed a Government Office Furniture Advisory Committee (GOFAC) to assist PWGSC in the development of a procurement strategy for the provision of office furniture to the Government of Canada by providing advice and recommendations relating to the strategy. The GOFAC will also monitor the implementation of the procurement strategy and provide feedback concerning the effectiveness of the strategy. The following associations and government departments nominated members and alternates to serve on the Committee: * Association des fabricants de meubles du Québec * Business and Institutional Furniture Manufacturers Association (BIFMA) International * Canadian Federation of Independent Business * Canadian Office Products Association * Public Sector Aboriginal Business Association * Canadian Heritage and Parks Canada * Industry Canada * Public Works and Government Services Canada BIFMA was asked to nominate a large and small manufacturer and alternates for the committee in February of 2007. The current nominees to the GOFAC are Greg Rapier of Knoll, Inc. and Eli Gilbert of Canadian Atlas Furniture Corp. Greg's alternate is Robert Axam of Haworth and Eli's alternate is Randall Bier of Inscape. The Government of Canada also selected representatives of Canadian companies to be on the committee. Bruce Parratt of The Global Group, David Swire of Teknion Furniture Systems, and Jean Barbeau of Artopex-Plus Inc. serve in that capacity. Meetings of the BIFMA CFTG are designed to obtain regular reports from the industry members of the GOFAC and keep everyone informed of the direction government procurement initiatives are going and determine how industry can be best prepared to meet those needs as well as the needs of its customers. Anyone is welcome to join our monthly calls. To be added to the mailing list, contact Brad Miller of BIFMA at bmiller@bifma.org.
This page updated 2008-04-29