This article is an extract from the 5th edition of Government Procurement.
In its September 2017 decision in Grascan Construction Ltd. v. Metrolinx, the Ontario Divisional Court rejected a judicial review challenge brought against a prequalification process by a rejected contractor. The case dealt with a $125 million express rail project. The contractor was disqualified for failing to provide the required audit letter confirming that its company had appropriate conflict of interest and ethical bidding practices in place. The contractor argued that it was provided insufficient time to meet the requirements and that the new audit rules favoured larger contractors. The court disagreed and rejected the challenge after finding that the prequalification process did not give rise to a judicially reviewable duty of fairness and, even if it did, on the merits the decision of Metrolinx to disqualify the applicant was reasonable.
