FREE TOOL — PROCUREMENT THRESHOLDS
Look up the direct-award and competitive-bid thresholds that govern your procurement — the Federal Government Contracts Regulations, the CFTA 2026 trade-agreement schedule, the Ontario BPS Procurement Directive, BC’s CPPM Chapter 6, TILMA for the western provinces, and Quebec’s LCOM in one printed dossier.
Every row carries a citation. Verify against your bylaw before relying on a specific number for a real procurement decision.
DOSSIER — PROCUREMENT THRESHOLDS — FILE 260525-ON-MS
5 thresholds matched
DIRECT-AWARD CEILING
CA$10,000
Below this, direct award typically permitted
COMPETITIVE / TRADE-AGREEMENT TRIGGER
CA$50,000
At or above this, open process / trade obligations apply
For municipalities in Ontario, services (general) procurements below CA$10,000 may typically be direct-awarded without competitive solicitation, per Common Ontario municipal bylaw pattern (illustrative). At or above CA$50,000 the procurement will trigger trade-agreement coverage (Atlantic Procurement Agreement (APA)).
CA$10,000
direct award limit
Common pattern: under $10,000 direct award; $10K–$25K typically two or three written quotes; above the trade-agreement threshold ($121,200 BPS / $139,000 CFTA), open competitive process required.
Pattern derived from Ottawa By-law 2000-50 and similar municipal procurement bylaws
VERIFIED 2026-05-04
CA$50,000
trade agreement triggers
Atlantic Procurement Agreement (NB, NL, NS, PE)
VERIFIED 2026-05-04
CA$75,000
trade agreement triggers
NWPTA Government Procurement Schedule (BC / AB / SK / MB MASH)
VERIFIED 2026-05-04
CA$139,000
trade agreement triggers
Canadian Free Trade Agreement, Article 504.3 (effective 2026-01-01)
CA$368,000
trade agreement triggers
CETA is the only treaty-level agreement that directly names Canadian municipalities as covered sub-central entities. Above $368,000 services and $9.2M construction, EU suppliers must be treated on equal footing. For typical municipal website work, irrelevant.
Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, Annex 19-2 (sub-central entities)
What real Canadian municipalities set in their procurement bylaws, below the trade-agreement floors. Province is a stronger predictor than population — Halifax (480K) sits at the same $10,000 direct-award ceiling as Truro (12.5K), while Edmonton (1M+) sits at $75,000.
Tighter direct-award ($1K) but $9,800 is in the quotes band — no public tender. Three quotes required.
Under $4K no quotes; $4K–$25K three verbal/written quotes; up to $125K RFQ procedure; over $125K RFT/RFP.
Goods/services under $10,000 acquired by departments via invitational process. Above $10K routes to Procurement Department.
Hard $10,000 cliff. The cleanest "$10K rule" in the sample — under is direct, over is public tender.
The canonical $10K direct-award. Construction formal at $334,400. Hamilton sustained $18.3M in ransomware recovery cost in 2024.
$25K direct ceiling — far above NS-style $10K. Construction RFQ band extends to $200K.
Standing offers and three-quote bands govern the $25K–$75K range. SaskTenders posting at $75K+.
High outlier on direct-award: a $34,500 contract proceeds with a single quote.
Partially confirmed; $50K threshold mentioned in the policy. Stratford paid ~$75K Bitcoin ransom in 2019 (recovery > $1M).
Highest direct-award ceiling in the sample. Low Value Purchase Order regime up to $75K.
Ville de Montréal
POP. 1,760,000
QC
CA$121,200
CA$121,200
Cities and Towns Act §573; Quebec Reg. C-19 r.5→Quebec municipalities pinned to CFTA threshold (now $139,000 effective 2026-01-01). Below: gré-à-gré (mutual agreement) permitted.
Division Head approves up to $120K with limited solicitation. Open competitive at $133,800. Anti-splitting clause explicit.
$100K is the documented competitive-bidding threshold; lower tiers exist but specific dollar amounts not surfaced in HTML.
NB Procurement Act binds municipalities to provincial floor: ≥$25K goods or ≥$100K services/construction = mandatory NBON tender.
14 confirmed entries. Bylaws change — verify against the municipality’s own current procurement policy before relying on a specific number.
A printed brief for every province and territory — the binding floor (CFTA, NWPTA, or provincial framework), the bylaw samples on file, and the procurement-friendly path to a rebuild. Each page is calibrated to the local direct-award ceiling.
The dossier reads against the following frameworks. Click through to the primary source — a current threshold figure should always be confirmed there before it is used in a procurement decision.
Trade-agreement thresholds (CFTA, CETA, CPTPP, WTO-AGP) re-baseline every two years on January 1 against the Industrial Product Price Index. The CFTA Article 504.3 figures shown here are the 2026–2027 schedule; they expire December 31, 2027.
Provincial directives (Ontario BPS, BC CPPM, Quebec LCOM) change less frequently but are not stable. Each row records the date it was last verified against the primary source. Re-verify before relying on a specific figure.
Most municipal procurement authority is set at the bylaw level. The dataset includes an illustrative pattern derived from Ottawa By-law 2000-50 — common across Ontario but not universal. Always confirm with your municipality's purchasing policy.
When a procurement is subject to multiple frameworks, the most-restrictive applicable threshold governs. This tool does not perform that arbitration for you — it surfaces every framework that applies so the procurement section can make the call.
FURTHER READING — THE LIBRARY
The full legal-floor analysis — CFTA, NWPTA, CETA, APA and each provincial framework with primary-source citations — is kept on file at The Legal Floor Above Bylaw. The bylaw-by-bylaw evidence the dataset is built from is in Municipal Procurement Thresholds — 24-Municipality Sample.
NEXT STEP
A complete municipal website rebuilt as custom software, deliberately structured to fall beneath your jurisdiction’s direct-award ceiling. No RFP. No procurement committee. The principal answers the phone.