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FREE TOOL — PROCUREMENT THRESHOLDS

Under the threshold, over the standard.

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.

§ III — SAMPLE MUNICIPAL BYLAWS03 / 05

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.

Town of Wolfville

POP. 5,000

NS

CA$1,000

CA$25,000

Policy 140-001 (2012)

Tighter direct-award ($1K) but $9,800 is in the quotes band — no public tender. Three quotes required.

City of Ottawa

POP. 1,030,000

ON

CA$4,000

CA$125,000

By-law 2000-50, §17–22

Under $4K no quotes; $4K–$25K three verbal/written quotes; up to $125K RFQ procedure; over $125K RFT/RFP.

Halifax Regional Municipality

POP. 480,000

NS

CA$10,000

CA$10,000

Administrative Order 2022-012-ADM

Goods/services under $10,000 acquired by departments via invitational process. Above $10K routes to Procurement Department.

Town of Truro

POP. 12,500

NS

CA$10,000

CA$10,000

Policy P-100-018 (2019-05)

Hard $10,000 cliff. The cleanest "$10K rule" in the sample — under is direct, over is public tender.

City of Hamilton

POP. 580,000

ON

CA$10,000

CA$133,800

By-law 20-205 (2022)

The canonical $10K direct-award. Construction formal at $334,400. Hamilton sustained $18.3M in ransomware recovery cost in 2024.

City of Nanaimo

POP. 105,000

BC

CA$25,000

CA$75,000

Council Procurement Policy

$25K direct ceiling — far above NS-style $10K. Construction RFQ band extends to $200K.

City of Saskatoon

POP. 290,000

SK

CA$25,000

CA$75,000

Policy C02-045 (2018)

Standing offers and three-quote bands govern the $25K–$75K range. SaskTenders posting at $75K+.

York Region

POP. 1,250,000

ON

CA$35,000

CA$133,800

By-law 2021-103 §13.1(a)

High outlier on direct-award: a $34,500 contract proceeds with a single quote.

City of Kingston

POP. 137,000

ON

CA$100,000

By-law 2022-154

$100K is the documented competitive-bidding threshold; lower tiers exist but specific dollar amounts not surfaced in HTML.

City of Moncton

POP. 80,000

NB

CA$25,000

NB Procurement Act / Reg 2014-93

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.

§ IV — BY JURISDICTION04 / 06

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.

§ II — FRAMEWORKS ON FILE02 / 05

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.

§ IV — METHODOLOGY04 / 05

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.

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Under the threshold, over the standard.

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