The Manitoba government faced accusations from the Opposition Wednesday of not having its elbows up when it comes to government contracts.

The province signed a three-year contract for food services in hospitals, jails and some other facilities last fall with Aramark Canada, a company based in Mississauga, Ont. Aramark’s global headquarters is in the United States.

The deal, worth $36 million, should have gone to a Manitoba company, especially in light of Premier Wab Kinew’s Buy Canadian policy announced a year ago in response to tariffs imposed by the United States, Opposition Progressive Conservative Leader Obby Khan said.

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“This premier sent $36 million to a company owned and operated out of the United States of America, and I’m sure there’s many, many more,” Khan told reporters.

The NDP government said Aramark Canada is a domestic company with more than 200 Manitoba workers that won a competitive bidding contest.

“It was an open process,” Mintu Sandhu, the minister for public service delivery, said.

Aramark Canada said in a written statement it has served Canadians for 75 years.

“We have more than 13,000 employees across the country _ from Newfoundland and Labrador to British Columbia to Nunavut. We live and work in the communities we serve,” the statement read.

Khan said choosing a Manitoba company would have kept more money here.

“There are a lot of Manitoba-owned and operated companies, homegrown companies here, that do the exact same thing,” Khan said.

The contract was originally listed last fall on a government disclosure website as having a value of $12 million over three years. Over the winter, the dollar figure was updated to $36 million.

The original dollar amount was a “placeholder” annual figure that was later changed to reflect the total spend, Sandhu said.

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