How to respond to a Quebec public tender, step by step

A Quebec public tender follows an order that the regulation largely sets: the notice, the documents, the addenda, the filing, then the buyer's decision. Each step has its rules, and a bid can be lost at any of them before prices are even compared.

This guide takes them in order, with what to know at each step and the article that covers it in depth. The rules quoted are those of the Règlement sur les contrats de travaux de construction des organismes publics, Quebec's regulation on public construction contracts. The regulations on services, supply and information-technology contracts carry equivalent rules, but not identical ones. Read the one that applies to your contract.

1. Find the notice

In Quebec, public bodies publish their calls for tenders on SEAO, the government's electronic tendering system. It is the only official window: the notice, the documents and the addenda all go through it. Federal notices on CanadaBuys and Ontario municipal notices are found elsewhere, each on its own site.

In Offra, a saved search emails you the new notices in your trade, on SEAO and on the other sources alike. What each one does is covered in what SEAO does, and what Offra adds.

2. Read the notice

What a notice contains is set by regulation: the public body, a description of the work, the bid security required, whether an intergovernmental agreement applies, the closing date and time, and the deadline for complaints.

Three of those decide whether the notice concerns you. The intergovernmental agreement says who may bid. The closing date gives your time: at least 15 days from the notice's publication. The complaints deadline is your last chance to challenge a requirement that looks written for a competitor. The detail is in how to read a SEAO notice, in French.

3. Check that the company is eligible

Before the documents, the company. To bid, it must hold the licences, authorisations and attestations required, such as the Régie du bâtiment licence, the Revenu Québec attestation, or the Autorité des marchés publics authorisation where it applies. It must also have an establishment in Quebec, or in a territory covered by an applicable agreement.

Those take weeks to obtain, not hours, and an ineligible company had no right to file: nothing can be corrected on filing day. See why a bid is rejected, in French. For a company from outside Quebec, everything turns on the contract's value and the agreement that applies: bidding on Quebec public tenders from outside Quebec and from Ontario.

4. Get the documents on SEAO

Tender documents and their addenda can be obtained only through SEAO. A set of drawings emailed by a client or a subcontractor is not the version your bid will be judged against, and nobody is bound to send you the addendum published the following week. Take the documents on SEAO: that is what gets you the addenda.

5. Decide: bid or pass

Preparing a bid costs days. Before you put the team on it, three questions often already have an answer in published contracts: the expected price, the likely competition, and who holds the contract today.

Across open calls, roughly one in six draws a single bid. The incumbent wins more often than other bidders, but not by much: about four points. Both are in French; the measurements by type of contract are in how much competition to expect on a Quebec public tender, and your region's figures in the market, region by region.

6. Read the documents and list what must be filed

The regulation requires the buyer to give, in its documents, the list of documents and items required. That list is the real table of contents of your bid. Read the conformity conditions too, not just the specification: some are designated as grounds for automatic rejection, and those are specific to each tender.

A single sentence can decide the fate of a bid, even the cheapest one; the French case study tells four real cases. It is also the work done by Offra's compliance matrix: every requirement, with the sentence it comes from.

7. Ask your questions, and follow the addenda

Ask for clarification early. The buyer may reserve the right to disregard a question received 5 working days or less before closing, if its documents say so.

An addendum changes the documents. If it may affect prices, it must go out at least 7 days before closing, or the date moves back. A change made 3 days or less before closing pushes the date back by at least 3 days. A bid filed on an outdated version of the documents is not a weaker bid: it is a non-compliant one. See addenda and closing dates, in French.

8. Set the price

The price is yours. On tenders where SEAO publishes every bid's price, the lowest one wins about nine times in ten. In construction, one contest in three is decided by less than 5% between the two lowest. An abnormally low price falls under a regime of its own: the documents must provide that such a bid is rejected.

9. Review and file

Automatic rejection is a closed list, written into the regulation: filing after the closing date and time; a missing bid security, or a missing signature on it; a missing commitment document or price document; an electronic bid not sent through SEAO, or unreadable; and any other condition the documents designate as grounds for automatic rejection. Several bids for the same tender get all of them rejected.

An electronic bid is filed through SEAO only. If its integrity cannot be established, the buyer sends a notice of default, and you have 2 working days to correct it. This is not the moment to file at the last minute and close the laptop.

10. After closing

The decision takes a little over three weeks at the median, and more than two months one time in ten. Roughly one open call in twenty is cancelled after bids have been filed. And when the cheapest bid loses, it had most often been set aside: the company was not eligible, or the bid was not compliant. The figures are in what happens after bids close, in French.

Where Offra comes in

Offra follows the same order: open notices from several sources in one search, the bid-or-pass verdict on a SEAO notice, the analysis of the documents requirement by requirement, the tasks your team shares out, and the review before filing. The price stays yours, and you are the one who files. Your first submission is on us.

In short

• Find the notice on SEAO, the only official window of Quebec's public bodies.
• Read the notice: the applicable agreement, the closing date and the complaints deadline decide whether it concerns you.
• Check the company's eligibility first: licences, attestations, establishment.
• Take the documents on SEAO, to receive the addenda.
• Decide whether to bid, with the expected price, the likely competition and the current holder.
• List the items required and the grounds for automatic rejection.
• Ask questions early and read every addendum.
• Set your price; an abnormally low price falls under a rejection regime of its own.
• File through SEAO, before the deadline, and read any notice of default.
• After closing, expect about three weeks, sometimes much longer.