Alma has completely eliminated its purchases on Amazon in 2024

The City of Alma completely eliminated its purchases on Amazon in 2024, after putting forward a local purchasing policy.

The mayor of Alma, Sylvie Beaumont, indicates that this measure was adopted after the publication of an article in The Dailywhich reported that the City had spent $7,000 on Amazon in 2022 and 2023.

We asked ourselves, how come people buy from Amazon? We who advocate local purchasing as it is not possible. So we simply put a policy in placeshe said.

Ms. Beaumont mentions that since then, the policy has been well observed by municipal teams.

However, purchases on the online platform are still permitted for certain specialized products that are not available locally, with the approval of the general management of the Municipality.

In terms of IT, it happens quite often that we need equipment that is not quickly available to us. This could be an element for which the DG would give approvalspecifies the mayor.

For his part, the president of the Quebec Federation of Municipalities, Jacques Demers, welcomes the change of direction made in Alma, and even thinks that it could become an example in the field

Every time we protect a local business, it protects the neighbors too. When people order online, they are not local services and jobshe maintains.

A city must still ensure that it encourages purchasing from us, it is our responsibility.

Saguenay also prioritizes local

The City of Saguenay also says it is sensitive to the issue of purchases on Amazon. As in Alma, such a purchase is only authorized when local businesses cannot meet demand.

In 2024, the Municipality spent $7,000 on Amazon. However, according to spokesperson Dominic Arseneau, the City agrees in certain cases to pay more to buy local.

In recent years, there have been several purchases that people wanted to make on Amazon that were refused, including office furniture. We are able to purchase chairs from local suppliers in Saguenayhe emphasizes.

There are still purchases that are made at Amazon out of obligation, a lot of it is very specialized computer equipment. The Police Department needed computer chips in 2024 and it was not possible to purchase them locally, so it was purchased on Amazonhe nuances.