[PAGENAME]

Procurement Policies and Trade Agreements

The Ontario government’s procurement policies require that:
- Goods contracts valued at $25,000 or more and service and construction contracts valued at $100,000 or more must use open competition.
- Consulting contracts, of any value, must use competitive tendering.
Open competitive procurements are advertised by the Ontario government.

Ministries and agencies must use an electronic tendering system to advertise any open competitive procurements of goods valued at $25,000 or more and services valued at $100,000 or more. All ministries use MERX as their designated electronic tendering system.

The Ontario government has made procurement commitments under three trade agreements – the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between Ontario and Quebec, the Agreement on Internal Trade and the Canada-US Procurement Agreement – so that Ontario vendors can access public procurement contracts and other business opportunities across Canada and the US. To ensure Ontario vendors have equal access to opportunities outside Ontario, the Ontario government does not apply any local preferences in its procurements.

The Ontario government encourages environmentally responsible purchases and supports the federal Environmental Choice Program guidelines and other measures to reduce, reuse and recycle waste. Environmental factors are given consideration in procurement decisions for all contracts worth more than $10,000.

Ontario government employees managing procurements and contracts are not allowed to receive a benefit of any kind, directly or indirectly, from any vendor. Vendors must not have any conflict of interest that may give them an unfair advantage in bidding on government contracts.

The Ontario government is committed to open, fair and transparent procurement processes. Vendors bidding on Ontario government contracts may request debriefings to understand how their proposal was evaluated and to learn how to improve their future proposals.