[ARCHIVED] NAFTA Threshold raised slightly for 2014-2015
[ARCHIVED – This article has been replaced with https://blog.theproposalcentre.ca//2016/01/20/nafta-threshold-for-2016-2017/]
The Government of Canada’s contracting policies and regulations are affected by numerous trade agreements that Canada has signed with other countries and even one between the provinces (the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)). Of all the agreements, the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has the most significant impact on government procurement by dictating some of the terms governing how solicitations are run.
From a services perspective, the threshold for the past two years has been $78,500. Treasury Board has recently announced that for the period from January 1, 2014 to December 31, 2015, the threshold will be $80,400, inclusive of taxes. Updated thresholds for goods, services and construction, for all trade agreements can be found in Treasury Board’s Contracting Policy Notice 2013-5.
One of the most affected areas will be professional services. The NAFTA threshold is used to delimit the separation between the ProServices Supply Arrangement and the TBIPS and TSPS Task-Based Supply Arrangements. Any contracts valued at $80,400 should be run under the ProServices Supply Arrangement while any contracts above that value would be run under TBIPS or TSPS.
In addition to which supply arrangement is used, the anticipated contract value in relation to the threshold also affects how many bidders need to be invited on an opportunity, whether or not the Crown can limit invitations to Canadian Suppliers only, and the length of time bidders have to respond to an opportunity.
Thresholds are updated every two years based on the exchange rate between U.S. and Canadian dollars.
