Federal work is posted on CanadaBuys (canadabuys.canada.ca), the Government of Canada's official procurement portal run by Public Services and Procurement Canada. CanadaBuys replaced the old Buyandsell.gc.ca site and the legacy Government Electronic Tendering Service around 19 September 2022, so any older guidance pointing you to Buyandsell is out of date. Every province and territory then runs its own free portal on top of that. The smart play is to monitor two to four portals, picked by who buys your kind of work, not by chasing the whole country.
Federal: CanadaBuys
CanadaBuys is where every federal department and agency posts competitive tenders: PSPC, National Defence, the RCMP, the CRA and the rest. To bid on federal work you generally need to:
- Get a CRA Business Number (the 9-digit number tied to your GST/HST account).
- Register in the Supplier Registration Information (SRI) system at sri.canada.ca to receive a Procurement Business Number. Registration is free and stays open with no deadline.
- Register in the federal e-procurement system used for the opportunity. Most large PSPC construction contracts route through SAP Ariba.
When you register, add your goods and services commodity codes carefully. That is how federal buyers find you for lower-dollar invitations they send out directly rather than advertising widely.
MERX is a private aggregator, not the federal portal
MERX (merx.com) is a private-sector platform that pulls federal tenders (taken from CanadaBuys), most provincial work, the broader public sector and some private commercial construction into one feed. Searching is free; document downloads and premium alert plans are paid. Note two things. First, MERX is not the official federal portal: CanadaBuys is. Second, MERX matters because it is the mandatory e-bidding platform for Manitoba provincial procurement, Defence Construction Canada posts its work exclusively through MERX, and its private construction stream is where general contractors post subcontractor packages for commercial jobs.
Provincial and territorial portals
Each province and territory runs an official, free portal. Registration may be required but viewing is free:
- British Columbia: BC Bid (bcbid.gov.bc.ca) for ministries and the broader public sector; many BC municipalities post on CivicInfo BC instead, so watch both.
- Alberta: Alberta Purchasing Connection (purchasing.alberta.ca).
- Saskatchewan: SaskTenders (sasktenders.ca).
- Manitoba: MERX (merx.com), the official e-bid platform.
- Ontario: the Ontario Tenders Portal for ministries; municipal and school-board work generally goes through Bids and Tenders (bidsandtenders.ca).
- Quebec: SEAO (seao.ca), which uniquely carries provincial ministries, health, education and municipalities on one system.
- New Brunswick: the New Brunswick Opportunities Network (NBON).
- Nova Scotia: NS Tenders (novascotia.ca).
- Prince Edward Island: PEI Tenders (tenders.princeedwardisland.ca).
- Newfoundland and Labrador: the Public Procurement Agency (gov.nl.ca/ppa).
- Northwest Territories, Yukon, Nunavut: each territory runs its own procurement page.
For national municipal work, Bids and Tenders carries a large share of city contracts across the country. CanadaBuys also publishes an "Other Tendering Websites" page that cross-references the provincial portal links from an authoritative federal source, handy for confirming a current URL.
A note on dollar thresholds
Public bodies are required to advertise once a contract passes a posting threshold, and federal goods, services and construction each have their own trigger. Provincial and municipal thresholds vary by jurisdiction and by the type of buyer, and they change. Do not assume a fixed figure for any one province: check the current threshold on that buyer's portal or procurement policy before deciding a job is too small to be advertised. Below the threshold, public bodies often invite a short list directly, which is exactly why registering and adding the right commodity codes pays off.
The free-first strategy
Start free and add a paid aggregator only when you are bidding consistently across several provinces.
- Federal work only: CanadaBuys.
- BC public sector: BC Bid plus CivicInfo BC.
- Alberta public sector: Alberta Purchasing Connection.
- Ontario provincial and public sector: Ontario Tenders Portal plus Bids and Tenders.
- Quebec: SEAO.
- National municipal pipeline: Bids and Tenders plus the specific city portals you target.
Only once you are winning across multiple provinces does a paid MERX Premium plan, or a similar aggregator, start to earn its monthly fee.
Common mistakes
- Trusting old links to Buyandsell.gc.ca. That portal is retired. Federal tenders are on CanadaBuys.
- Treating MERX as official federal. It is a private aggregator. The source of truth for federal work is CanadaBuys.
- Monitoring too many portals. Pick by buyer. Two to four is plenty for most small contractors.
- Skipping the commodity codes. Vague or missing codes mean buyers cannot find you for the direct invitations below the advertising threshold.
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