COMPANY NEWS
Free Buy Ontario support, built right in
Ontario's own procurement platform makes Standard Buy Ontario compliance features free for every municipal client.
Ontario's Buy Ontario Act asks municipalities to give preference to Ontario made goods and services, and this week that got a lot more real. The province's Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing warned that municipalities could lose funding if they don't comply with Buy Ontario procurement rules, especially given the ongoing trade dispute with the U.S. The minister sent a letter to all 444 municipalities in Ontario telling them to review their supply chains and upcoming purchases for chances to buy more domestically.
Some municipalities pushed back, saying the new rules add cost and complexity they weren't prepared for. That's the exact problem Standard Buy Ontario support is meant to solve.
So we're launching it now. Standard lets buyers flag Buy Ontario projects, track award decisions and exceptions, and report on all of it. It's live today, and it's free for every Ontario client. Advanced evaluation workflows, which will automate supplier data collection and the domestic content math, are coming later.
Why we built this
We didn't come to Ontario from somewhere else. bids&tenders was built here, by people who grew up around the same municipal procurement world this Act now affects. When something like this lands on our clients' desks, especially with real money on the line now, we don't think of it as a chance to sell a premium feature. We think about our own communities asking their local governments to support local businesses, and how we can make that simpler instead of harder.
That's why Standard is free. Every Ontario municipality on bids&tenders should be able to handle this requirement with confidence, not scramble to prove compliance after getting a letter from Queen's Park.
“As an Ontario company ourselves, this legislation isn't abstract to us. It's about the same local suppliers and communities we all belong to. With the province saying funding is on the line, our clients don't have room for guesswork. We wanted them to be able to meet this moment with confidence from day one. Buy Ontario compliance should be something the platform just does for you, not one more thing to manage.”
Laura Case, Director of Customer Success & Engagement“The Act exists to grow the local and domestic economy, and that growth shouldn't be paid for in administrative hours by the people implementing it. We partnered with buyers who were already wrestling with the operational side to make the tracking, the domestic content math, and the reporting a natural part of how they already work in bids&tenders. Meeting the Act shouldn't mean building an extra process, and an extra spreadsheet, around it.”
Colleen Colbeck, R&D ManagerWhat it means for our clients
For the teams posting and evaluating bids on bids&tenders, every Buy Ontario project gets flagged automatically. Award decisions and exceptions are captured in one place. Reporting is ready whenever the province asks for it, or whenever it comes up at a council meeting. No spreadsheets, no cross referencing by hand, no guessing whether a project even falls under the Act.
What it means for us
We're a Canadian company supporting Canadian legislation for Canadian public buyers, and that matters to us more now than usual. Being Ontario's platform means showing up for what Ontario needs, and this is one of the clearest chances we've had to actually do that.
Want to see it in action?