9.40.15. Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business and Canadian content
Attention! As the transition to CanadaBuys is ongoing, Supply Manual references to ABE are to be interpreted as a generic system reference only. Users of the SAP Ariba environment should adapt their activities accordingly.
Buyers are advised to consult the tools available on CanadaBuys for guidance and procedures on completing procurement transactions in the SAP Ariba environment.
- If the value of the procurement is equal to or greater than $25,000, PSIB and the Canadian Content Policy will be applied simultaneously.
- In applying the Canadian Content Policy under a set-aside procurement, it must be recognized that there are two levels of certification. The first level of certification will be to qualify the supplier(s) as eligible for consideration, i.e., a supplier must provide certification that it is an Indigenous business.
- Having established that the procurement will be conducted as a PSIB set-aside, contracting officers must then apply the Canadian Content Policy in the same manner as any other procurement but in the context of the Indigenous business supplier community. Contracting officers must determine whether there are sufficient eligible firms to carry out the procurement as solely limited (i.e., two or more Indigenous businesses are able to provide Canadian goods or services), conditionally limited (i.e., there may be two or more Indigenous suppliers of Canadian goods or services), or open (i.e., there is an insufficient number of Indigenous businesses able to provide Canadian goods or services; the procurement is open to all Indigenous businesses regardless of the origin of the goods and services supplied). (See 3.130 Canadian Content Policy.)
- A bid/offer/arrangement for a set aside procurement, which includes the Canadian content provision, must be reviewed initially to determine whether the supplier has provided the necessary certificate that it is an Indigenous business. Bids/offers/arrangements meeting this basic certification are then assessed according to the stated Canadian content criteria.