In it April 2024 determination in St. Michaels Investment Group Canada Inc. v. Department of Public Works and Government Services, the Canadian International Trade Tribunal upheld the government’s decision to reject a bid as non-compliant due to incomplete pricing information.
The dispute dealt with an RFP issued by the by the Department of Public Works and Government Services for the provision of construction management services. The Tribunal determined that the complainant’s bid was properly rejected for failing to submit, among other things, the complete pricing table required by the RFP. While the Tribunal noted that the RFP process included a multi-staged compliance rectification process, it also found that the RFP rules did not permit the rectification of pricing. The Tribunal therefore concluded that the bidder was properly disqualified for failing to provide complete pricing information as part of its initial bid.
While the decision did not elaborate on the reason why the government restricted the scope of rectification to exclude price, this is likely due to the fact that the RFP also required the submission of bid bonds, a practice that at common law creates the Contract A bidding rules and imposes significant restrictions on allowing bidders to correct price errors since this would constitute bid repair under those more restrictive rules.
This ruling, which illustrates why public institutions should adopt formal protocols and templates enabling the use of more flexible NRFP tendering formats that allow for price and non-price rectifications, will be covered in the Dealing with Compliance Rectifications module of our new Negotiated RFPs in the Canadian Public Sector certificate program that runs in May and returns in November. Please see our current training schedule for more details.
