How to Bid on Government Contracts in Canada: A Small Business Guide

If you run a small service business, the federal work you're most likely to win first may never be posted as a public tender. For services, a federal department can award a contract worth up to $40,000 without soliciting bids (Government Contracts Regulations, section 6), and Public Services and Procurement Canada says buyers often find suppliers for these smaller purchases through source lists and their own professional networks (PSPC). So the first job is being registered properly and easy to find. The second is knowing how to read a tender when one fits your work.

This is the process as it works as of November 2026, including the parts that changed this year.

How to bid on government contracts in Canada, step by step

You register your business on SAP Business Network, answer the Government of Canada's supplier questionnaire, get a CRA business number, then find tenders on CanadaBuys and submit a bid that meets every mandatory requirement before the closing time. The supplier account is free (CanadaBuys), and every step goes faster if you finish it before a tender you want appears.

1. Find or get your CRA business number.
2. Create a free SAP Business Network account through CanadaBuys.
3. Complete the Government of Canada questionnaire inside that account.
4. Search CanadaBuys and read each tender's evaluation criteria before anything else.
5. Send questions in writing before the question deadline, then submit by the method the tender names.
6. Win or lose, ask for a debrief.

How do I register as a supplier with the Government of Canada?

You create a free account on SAP Business Network through CanadaBuys, then fill in the Government of Canada questionnaire inside it. PSPC buys for other federal departments, agencies and Crown corporations, and SAP Business Network is where its tenders are viewed and bid on (CanadaBuys).

The account asks for your legal name, your head office address, a main user and at least one product or service category, and you activate it from an email (CanadaBuys registration guide). Use your legal name exactly as CRA has it. The questionnaire then asks you to agree to the Code of Conduct for Procurement, pick your industry, list your owners or directors, answer two voluntary self-identification questions and fill in a short environmental section. Questions 3 to 8 are what you need to submit a bid; question 9, your business number and payment details, completes full registration (CanadaBuys registration guide). You can save it as a draft and come back.

One thing older guides get wrong: the Supplier Registration Information system, where suppliers used to get a "procurement business number," was decommissioned on July 6, 2026 (CanadaBuys). If a guide sends you there, it's out of date. You'll also need the account just to open tender documents, even if you're only looking (CanadaBuys).

Do I need a business number to bid?

Yes, plan on getting one. CRA says you need a business number before you start bidding on federal contracts (CRA), while CanadaBuys' own guide says you can submit a bid without one but need it before a contract, standing offer or supply arrangement is awarded (CanadaBuys). Either way, having it first means you aren't scrambling in the week you win.

You may already have one. Registering or incorporating in British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, PEI or Saskatchewan gives you a business number automatically (CRA). If you've registered for GST/HST, you have one already, because CRA attaches every program account to your business number (CRA). If you registered in BC, our guide to registering a business in British Columbia walks through where it comes from. As of July 14, 2026, CRA's Business Registration Online is reached only through your CRA account, and a number registered there is issued instantly (CRA).

Have your banking ready too. The Government of Canada pays Canadian suppliers by direct deposit only, and registration asks for a voided cheque or a letter from your bank (CanadaBuys checklist).

Can a sole proprietor bid on government contracts?

Yes. "Individual / sole proprietor" is one of the business types in the supplier questionnaire, where you list yourself as the owner (CanadaBuys). PSPC's security screening pages are written for "a single-person consulting firm" as well as for large corporations (PSPC).

What's harder alone is scoring well. A tender that rates three comparable past projects, or asks for two named people with résumés, favours a bigger bench, and that's often the moment to team up with another business. If you're still weighing your structure, our sole proprietor or incorporate guide covers what each means for personal liability, which starts to matter once a contract carries insurance clauses.

How long does it take to get set up?

Registration is mostly a matter of having your details in front of you: a business number registered online is instant (CRA), the SAP Business Network account activates from an email, and the questionnaire saves as a draft (CanadaBuys). Security clearance is the slow part, and only some contracts need it.

PSPC estimates a Designated Organization Screening, needed for contracts at the Protected level, at up to four months, and a Facility Security Clearance for classified work at six months or more (PSPC). The same page says screening typically has to happen before the contract is awarded, so if you don't hold a clearance yet, expect months between sending the bid and starting the work.

Is there a set-aside for women-owned businesses in Canada?

No. As of November 2026 there's no federal set-aside for women-owned businesses. PSPC's Policy on Social Procurement aims to widen participation by under-represented groups, women included, and the department says its Program on Social Procurement will decide how and when to use the set-aside provisions in trade agreements (PSPC supplier diversity action plan). PSPC has run some pilot opportunities targeting women since 2018 (PSPC), but it doesn't publish a standing women-owned set-aside you can register for.

Question 7 of the supplier questionnaire lets you identify your business as owned or led by a woman; it's voluntary and used for administrative and statistical purposes (CanadaBuys). In 2024 to 2025, 14% of the bids PSPC received came from suppliers who are women (PSPC), and its target is at least 15% by March 31, 2027 (PSPC departmental plan).

The federal set-aside that does exist is the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business, for businesses at least 51% Indigenous owned and controlled and listed in the Indigenous Business Directory (Indigenous Services Canada). We go further into what women founders can and can't count on in how to bid on federal contracts as a woman-owned small business.

What goes into a bid, and how is it evaluated?

A bid answers the tender's evaluation criteria, usually in a technical section, a financial section and signed certifications (PSPC). Mandatory criteria are pass or fail, and missing one ends the bid. Point-rated criteria then score what you offer beyond the minimum, such as your methodology and your team's experience (PSPC).

PSPC calls the evaluation criteria the most important part of the solicitation, so read them before the statement of work. Evaluators score only what's on the page, and PSPC's own seminar notes say "each bid is evaluated solely on its contents." A good conversation with the department last spring counts only if you write the relevant experience into the bid.

The lowest price doesn't always win. In PSPC's worked example of a 60/40 split between technical merit and price, a $55,000 bid with the highest technical score beat a $45,000 bid. Some tenders do go to the lowest-priced compliant bid, one of the selection methods PSPC lists, and each tender says which method it uses in its evaluation section. Price is assessed separately from the technical bid (CanadaBuys), and our guide to pricing your services helps you set a number you could live with if you win.

Send questions to the contracting authority in writing before the question deadline; answers are posted as amendments for every bidder, and you can change and resubmit your bid until the tender closes (PSPC). Late bids aren't accepted (PSPC).

What security clearance or insurance might a tender ask for?

Only some tenders need either, and each says so. Clearance is required when your people will access protected or classified information, assets or sensitive sites (PSPC). You can't apply for organization screening on your own; you're sponsored, usually by bidding on a tender with security requirements and including a completed Application for Registration form with your bid (PSPC sponsorship process).

Insurance is set contract by contract. As one example, PSPC's Task and Solutions Professional Services supply arrangement asks for commercial general liability of at least $2,000,000 per occurrence, with a certificate of insurance due within 10 working days of award (PSPC). Call your broker while you're deciding whether to bid, since that certificate is due within two weeks of a win.

Where are provincial and municipal tenders, like BC Bid?

On their own sites, separate from CanadaBuys. In British Columbia, the province and broader public sector buyers post on BC Bid, which is free to register for with a Business BCeID and open to browse without logging in (Province of BC). The City of Vancouver runs its own supplier portal (City of Vancouver), and other cities have their own too.

That patchwork is a familiar complaint in founder forums. In one r/SmallBusinessCanada thread, people called CanadaBuys "painfully time consuming" and were annoyed by "how many of the bids are on provincial sub sites where you need to make another account," while one said PSPC's free webinars helped with the acronyms. If your clients are local, your city's portal may be the better place to start.

Who shouldn't bother yet

Government bids are long written documents, and they're strict about format. If you don't yet have two or three finished projects like the ones a tender describes, you'll struggle on rated criteria, and your hours will go further with clients you can reach directly; where your first 10 customers actually come from is the better read for that stage. The same goes if you can't spare several days on a bid you might lose. In your first year, what to prioritise in your first year will probably put this further down the list, and that's fine.

It suits a founder who has done this kind of work for a few clients already and can treat her first two or three bids as practice, each one ending in a debrief.

Where to start this week

Find your business number, then register on SAP Business Network and finish the questionnaire, question 9 included, so you're ready at award. Procurement Assistance Canada runs free webinars, including "Finding Opportunities and Registering as a Supplier" on November 17, 2026 at 11 am Pacific (PSPC event calendar); its phone line closed after May 29, 2026, so questions go to sac-pac@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca (PSPC). Then search CanadaBuys' award notices and contract history for your kind of work to see who has won it before (PSPC).

If you'd rather not check CanadaBuys every morning, members of Athena Collective have a Contracts tab in Opportunities that reads federal tenders from CanadaBuys and SAM.gov each morning, ordered by closing date with no paid placement. Each tender comes with plain-language words, the checks to confirm and the steps to bid, and marking one as Bidding turns those steps into a plan with a submit-by day and a reminder. It's federal only for now, so BC Bid and your city's portal are still yours to watch. See what membership includes.

FAQ

Do I have to pay to see federal tenders?
No. CanadaBuys is the official source for Government of Canada tender and award notices (PSPC), and the SAP Business Network account you need to open documents is free (CanadaBuys). Paid tender services exist, but you don't need one for federal work.

Can I bid together with another business?
Yes. Joint ventures are one of the business types in the questionnaire, and many CanadaBuys tenders have a list where businesses say they're open to partnering (CanadaBuys). Agreeing with other bidders on who bids or what you bid, without telling the buyer, is bid-rigging under section 47 of the Competition Act, punishable by a fine the court sets, up to 14 years in prison, or both (Competition Bureau). Our guide to how small businesses team up to bid on government contracts covers doing it properly.

Can I change my bid after I submit it?
Yes, until the tender closes (PSPC).

What should I do if I lose?
Ask for a debriefing. PSPC says it can show you how and why the contract was awarded and where your bid was strong or weak (PSPC).

Is a government contract the same as a grant?
No. A contract pays you to deliver work a department needs, and you compete on a tender to win it. A grant funds your business toward a goal the funder sets. For that side, see grants for women entrepreneurs in Canada.