About the OCDS Pilot

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The Government of Canada has committed to leading the efforts in accelerating and expanding open data in order to strength the openness, and accountability to government. It is striving to set a higher bar for transparency, recognizing that government and its information should be open by default. Canada has agreed to take on the role of lead government co-chair of the Open Government Partnership (OGP). The OGP is a multilateral initiative to foster greater transparency and accountability, improve governance, and increase civic engagement worldwide.

Canada’s National Action Plan on Open Government includes commitments and milestones which are renewed every two years to ensure we are on track towards greater openness, transparency and efficiency. As part of Canada’s 4th National Action Plan on Open Government 2018-2020, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) is leading an Open Government commitment with Treasury Board Secretariat (TBS) to increase financial transparency and accountability.

As part of this commitment, PSPC has produced pilot data that tests the implementation of the Open Contracting Data Standard (OCDS), which includes a variety of 250 government contracts including major projects. The OCDS Pilot data includes all stages of the procurement cycle (planning, tender, award, contract, and implementation).

What procurement data is included in the OCDS Pilot?

The OCDS Pilot used PSPC data that primarily included: tenders, awards, standing offers, supply arrangements, and contract history information for procurement conducted by PSPC on behalf of government departments and agencies since 2012.

Using unique identifiers, the OCDS linked procurement information together in one open data file using a machine readable JSON file format. This makes it easier for users to understand the flow of contracts throughout the procurement cycle in the OCDS Pilot data including the planning, tender, award, contract, and implementation stages.

The OCDS Pilot supports the principle of Open Information and as such has been published on the Open Government web portal. To learn more about the data file, visit the Download OCDS Pilot Data web page.