The Purchasing Division is responsible for the acquisition of all goods, services and construction for Metro Vancouver and its associated entities: Greater Vancouver Water District; Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District; and Metro Vancouver Housing Corporation. This activity is carried out in accordance with the Metro Vancouver’s contracting policies and procedures and generally involves the solicitation of competitive bids.

Metro Vancouver’s Sustainable Procurement Policy is now in effect for all formal competitive processes. The Policy has three main components, Economic, Environmental and Social, which add to and are independent of specifications and/or requirements.

Metro Vancouver’s sustainable purchasing practices consider our bidders’ sustainable track records and impacts, as well as their sustainable purchasing policies and practices. Recent procurement activities demonstrate an increase in sustainable initiatives among bidders in a variety of industries.

For more information on Metro Vancouver’s Sustainable Procurement Policy and for illustrative examples of environmental and social impacts please refer to the documents listed on the right hand side of this page.

This site provides information regarding Invitations to Tender (ITTs), Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Requests for Qualifications (RFQs) and Requests for Expressions of Interest (RFEOIs) issued by the Purchasing Division. In some cases, the documents will be available electronically for download from this site. Others must be obtained in person from Metro Vancouver offices.

Vendors must register on this site in order to download electronic copies of documents. Downloaded documents must not be altered in any way (except for the insertion of the required information). Any alteration of a downloaded document without the express consent of Metro Vancouver may invalidate a submission containing that alteration.

It is the sole responsibility of a proponent or tenderer that downloads documents from this site to continue to monitor the site to the closing date for any addenda to those documents.

Bid Compliance

Canada’s laws of competitive bidding provide the framework for fair and equal treatment of bidders, a principle strongly embraced at Metro Vancouver. Recognizing that bidders invest considerable resources in responding to Metro Vancouver’s bidding opportunities, it serves everyone’s best interests to eliminate errors, oversights and omissions that could render Tenders and Proposals incapable of acceptance. To this end, a list of some of the types of errors that can invalidate a bidder’s response appears in a document listed at the right side of this page (see Examples of Non-Compliance). Although not a comprehensive list, bidders are encouraged to acquaint themselves with this information in the hope of submitting compliant Proposals and Tenders. If at all in doubt, contact the Buyer named in the document as the contact for enquiries.

Evaluation of Proposals and Tenders

It is the Corporation’s intent to evaluate proposals and tenders as promptly as possible. Corporate staff may contact a proponent or tenderer if a clarification is required, however, they are unable to provide any details concerning the evaluation process until after the evaluation has concluded and a contract is awarded. All proponents and tenderers will be notified of the outcome once a contract is awarded and debriefings will be offered to all parties that submitted a proposal.

At Metro Vancouver, contracting authority is vested only with the Chief Administrative Officer, Deputy Chief Administrative Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Purchasing and Risk Manager, Assistant Purchasing and Risk Manager, and designated Purchasing staff.