Ontario Posts Draft Buy Ontario Regulations
The Ontario government has posted it’s first policies for consultation under the Buy Ontario Act that was passed late last year. The posting will be open for comment until March 2nd.
These regulations and policies are the first tranche that the government will implement, and after consultation these regulations and directives will likely come into effect in March.
There are 2 key takeaways from this posting. The first is that the government is expanding the scope of public sector entities to include municipalities under the Act. The second is that the government is proposing a new sector by sector approaches in leveraging public procurement for economic development in Ontario and Canada.
Policies for Consultation:
- The first policy is a regulation that adds municipalities and local boards as public sector entities under the Act. The Act already applies to government entities (OPS) and designated Broader Public Sector Organizations (BPS).
- The second set of policies is proposed Cabinet Directives that will require public sector entities to give preference to Ontario-made goods and services when procuring for:
Light-duty vehicle fleets
In this proposed directive, the government is moving towards an approach that first looks for “Made-in Ontario Vehicles,” defined as vehicles with a VIN beginning with 2, Canada’s country code. If an “Made-In Ontario Vehicle” is unavailable or not feasible, public sector entities would then be required to purchase from an “Ontario Vehicle Producer” which is defined as an Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) that can meet a threshold of 1,500 annualized jobs across their Ontario footprint.
This new policy is a signal that when feasible, the government may move away from the 250 employee thresholds in the Procurement Restriction Policy and the Building Ontario Businesses Initiative regulations when defining Ontario and Canadian based businesses, and instead look to tiered approaches that first look for Ontario made products, and then look to the footprints of entities looking to do business with the Ontario government.
Major goods and services in capital infrastructure and construction projects
A draft policy for the major goods and services has not been provided, but several elements of the policy have been included in a survey.
There are several key definitions being consulted on in the survey:
- “Ontario Made,” which means that a product originates in the province of Ontario by being “either grown, produced, or manufactured in Ontario.”
- “Canadian Made,” which means that a product originates in Canada by being “either grown, produced, or manufactured in Canada.”
- “Ontario Service” which means “a service provided by an individual, supplier, manufacturer, or distributor of any business structure based in Ontario.”
- “Canadian Service” which means “a service provided by an individual, supplier, manufacturer, or distributor of any business structure based in Canada.”
The proposed policy requirements would operationalize this policy by requiring vendors to commit to sourcing Ontario and Canadian goods and services to the extent possible, and this commitment would be evaluated against pre-established criteria during bid evaluation. The survey has included a draft evaluation methodology in the survey which requires vendors to provide domestic supply chain plans on all bids.
Lastly, the policy would give several ministries and Supply Ontario the authority to request data from public service entities on awarded vendors, which will help Supply Ontario improve its data for future planning.