Partnership Documentation

Background

Public sector procurement supports daily operations and service delivery to Canadians.

More than $200 billion every year from 10,000 buyer organizations

Getting a full picture of the total dollar value of public sector procurement is tough, but as of 2015, the OECD estimates that general government procurement in Canada is approximately $267 billion 1, representing 13.44% of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP). 2 This figure covers the roughly 10,000 buyer organizations, including federal, provincial, territorial and municipal governments, academic institutions, and social and health sectors (FPT MASH), that procure goods, services, and construction for the public sector.

Currently nine of the provinces and territories have their MASH sectors publish tender opportunities on their platform, unifying multiple jurisdictions and buyer organizations on one website. As of October 13, 2017, provincial and territorial procurement websites had approximately 4,000 open opportunities 3.

A lack of integration between jurisdictions in Canada makes it difficult for businesses to identify which buyer organizations could purchase their products. Based on the team’s Discovery research, businesses in Canada report significant barriers to finding contract opportunities relevant to their work.

International trade requirement for integrating public buyers

In addition to domestic barriers to finding contracts, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement (CETA) with the European Union, Article 19.6 requires that a “single point of access” (SPA) be built to help European businesses identify contract opportunities. It requires that Canada publish “notices of intended procurement” from the public sector on one site by September 21, 2022.

For both domestic and European businesses, the SPA presents an opportunity to address a key pain point for businesses in Canada - finding relevant contracts quickly and easily. The team’s research in Discovery focused on businesses experiences and needs when finding contracts, the technical and business processes of buyer organizations, and the context of doing business in Canada.

  1. General government procurement accounts for 13.44% of Canada’s Gross Domestic Product ($1.983 trillion), which is $267 billion. ↩

  2. OECD.Stat. (2017). Government at a Glance -2017 edition: Public Procurement. (table: General government procurement as a percentage of GDP). retrieved from ↩

  3. Borden Ladner Gervais LLP and Tereposky & DeRose LLP (2018). Market access opportunities for EU business in Canada in the context of CETA. P.78 retrieved from ↩