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 rejected the complainant’s assertion that the government breached its debriefing duties since the complainant never formally asked for a debriefing after receiving a government regret letter.
The dispute dealt with an RFP issued 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 a complete pricing table as required by the RFP. The Tribunal further found that the government was not in violation of its debriefing duties since the proponent never asked for a formal debriefing before initiating its bid protest and that, in any event, the information provided in the specific regret letter was sufficient to meet the debriefing disclosure duties under the trade treaties.
As the Tribunal stated, “PWGSC provided an explanation of the reasons why PWGSC declared its bid non-responsive” since “St. Michaels’ financial bid was missing all the financial information required by the RFP” and, more specifically, was missing the required pricing table and bid bond. Accordingly, the Tribunal found that “there is nothing more PWGSC could have added to the information that was already provided to St. Michaels in the regret letter.”
While this case should not be taken to mean that a regret letter sent to a losing bidder will automatically satisfy debriefing disclosure duties, or negate the duty to provide a live briefing if requested by a proponent, the information provided in the regret letter in this case, when coupled with the losing bidder’s failure to formally request a debriefing, meant that the government met its trade treaty debriefing obligations in the specific situation.
This ruling, which illustrates why public institutions should adopt formal debriefing protocols to ensure that the properly comply with their trade treaty disclosure duties, will be featured in the Navigating Debriefing Disclosures and Confidentiality Duties module of our new Fundamentals of Canadian Government Procurement certificate program that runs in April and returns in October. Please see our current training schedule for more details.
