Standards & Practices

BidCentral Online Bidding for Subcontractors
In the interest of maintaining a fair and equitable process for the submission of trade contractor bids to general contractors, the BCCA supports and encourages the use of BidCentral Online Bidding for Subcontractors (BOBS). BOBS is recommended for trades with an estimated value of $50,000 or greater on all institutional, commercial, industrial or multi-family residential projects valued at over $500,000. This includes being applicable for all civil projects that have a structural building component of over $500,000 (excluding Division 2 trades with the exception of landscaping and asphalt paving).

Bidder Qualification
On public funded projects of $100,000 or more a contractor’s ability to bid is determined solely by the bidder’s capability to provide bonding. A clause requiring a bidder to submit details of their experience or financial status in the bid documents should not be included.  BCCA believes that all qualified firms, without limiting the number of bidders, should be permitted to bid on publicly funded projects of $100,000 or more, and that on such projects bidders’ lists should not be restricted to an “invited” list.  If the contract is awarded, it is awarded to the lowest compliant bidder.

Bidding And Contract Award Procedures
BCCA endorses the bidding and contract award practices and procedures outlined in CCDC 23 - 'A Guide to Calling Bids and Awarding Contracts' and the Public Construction Council's Procedures and Guidelines Recommended for Use on Publicly Funded Construction Projects.

Cash Allowances
The November 2004 version of A Guide to the Use of Cash Allowances represents the Association's policy on Cash Allowances. Click here for the detailed policy in PDF format

Construction Management
For a guideline to the use of Construction Management refer to the CCA 26 A Guide to the Construction Management Project Delivery Method (available through one of the 4 Regional Construction Associations in BC).

Contracting Out
All Government, publicly funded agencies, and Crown Corporations should be required to contract out construction and major maintenance work and services to the private sector in order to ensure maximum efficiency and public accountability.

Cross-subsidization Policy
BCCA recommends that non-utility business activities conducted by utility monopolies be subject to regulations aimed at ensuring fair and equal competition in the marketplace. In particular, 'cross-subsidization' of non-utility activities and abuse of market power by utilities should not be permitted.

Design-build
The March 1997 version of the BCCA Recommended Policy & Procedure for Publicly Funded Design-Build Projects represents the Association's policy on Design-Build. Click here for the detailed policy in PDF format

Document Distribution Policy

• Online Planroom shall be considered as a venue to host, display and print all publicly funded construction project information.
• That the provincial government construction tender information system partner with Online Planroom for the viewing, downloading and printing of all documents.
• That the provincial government and other public owners ensure that they continue to be a source for hardcopy documents for publicly funded construction project tenders in all regions.
• Local construction associations continue to receive a minimum of one hardcopy set of plans and specifications for each planroom in the geographical area of project interest, with additional copies to be made available on a case-by-case basis at the discretion of the public agency office responsible for the project.
• That the provincial government and other public owners ensure that an accessible registration process and system is in place to record prime and major trade plan holders.
• That the provincial government and other public owner are responsible to ensure that the tendering authorities disseminate addenda to all registered plan holders and local construction association planrooms in a timely manner.

Faxed Revision
It is important to the industry that owners provide the ability to revise tenders by fax. The onus is on the contractor to have the revision to the designated location at the designated time thus providing the owners with the most competitive prices.

BCCA endorses the use of faxed tender revisions to the original tender.

Procedure:

• All monetary revisions to tender amounts must be stated as an addition or deletion to the tendered price.
• All monetary revisions to separate, alternate or unit prices should e stated as a new price in lieu of an addition to or deduction from the submitted price.
• The tender closing information should include the fax number for sending revisions and a phone number for confirming receipt of revision.
• Any fax revising the original tender must be clearly legible. Monetary revisions to the tender amount must be stated numerically and in writing.
• All faxed revisions must be date and time stamped immediately upon receipt.
• For faxed revisions, the clock used for the official tender closing time shall govern.
• No faxed revision will be accepted after tender closing.
• No tenders will be opened until after the eligible faxed revisions are received at the place of tender opening.
• Where a faxed amendment is received at the fax number provided in the invitation to tender and the time of receipt is deemed valid, this faxed amendment should be accepted even though said fax is not at the location of the opening.
• Contractors are warned that faxed revisions to tenders are submitted solely at the risk of the contractor until such time as they have been received by the tendering authority.

For a sample format for a faxed revision refer to the  Bid Form, Appendix F which can be found in the BCDC 2 documents at www.bcdc2.ca.

Industry Standard Documents
BCCA support the use of standard documents, developed and endorsed by the industry, as a means of promoting standard practices and procedures within the industry and vigorously opposes the implementation of supplementary General Conditions which have the effect of altering or subverting the intent or substance of these documents.

Inter-provincial Trade & Work Barriers
BCCA recommends that all forms of discrimination, which are based on preference for 'local' businesses be eliminated.

BCCA favours the free and unfettered movement of construction materials, services and personnel throughout every region of Canada. Existing regional barriers and preference policies should be removed in accordance with an established timetable for their elimination.

With respect to publicly funded procurement, BCCA believes that:

• The specification of construction materials and installed equipment on publicly funded projects within Canada should be guided solely by price, quality and availability considerations, without any regard to the origin or source of supply within Canada of such materials or installed equipment.
• The selection and use of construction materials, machinery, equipment and personnel on publicly funded projects in Canada should not be limited in any respect by the origin or source of supply in Canada of such materials, machinery, equipment or personnel.
• Competitive bids on publicly funded construction projects in Canada should not be evaluated whatsoever on the basis of:
  • the location of a bidder in a particular region of Canada, or
  • the local or regional content of the bid
• Procurement by all levels of government within Canada should not be used as a regional development tool where the net result is to prefer the local sourcing of construction materials, services, or personnel to the disadvantage of other sources within Canada.
• Until the above objective is met, BCCA recommends that where the location of a bidder in a particular region of Canada, or the local content of the bid is to be a consideration in the evaluation of the bids or in the selection of the successful bidder, that information and related process be clearly spelled out to all bidders by the tender calling authority at the time of the initial call.

Overbudget Negotiation Process
If the lowest compliant bid exceeds the Owner's budgeted amount, and the Owner is unwilling or unable to award a contract at the bid price but is unwilling to abandon the project, the following guidelines for a course of action are recommended:

• Where the amount by which the bid price must be reduced is less than 15% of the lowest compliant bid, the first step should be to negotiate with the lowest compliant bidder (only) to identify changes in the scope or quality of the work and a corresponding bid price reduction.  Where the Owner and lowest compliant bidder can agree on acceptable changes and a corresponding bid price reduction, the changes should be documented as a post-bid addendum and the contract, based on the negotiated reduced price, should be awarded to the lowest compliant bidder.  However, where acceptable changes and a corresponding bid price reduction cannot be successfully negotiated with the lowest compliant bidder, the second step should be to re-bid on modified Bid Documents under a new bid call.  Negotiations should be limited exclusively to the lowest compliant bidder.
• Where the amount by which the bid price must be reduced exceeds 15% of the lowest compliant bid, the bid-calling authority may immediately undertake either of the preceding steps described above, at its descretion.  That is, the Owner may negotiate with the lowest compliant bidder first or re-bid on modified Bid Documents without any attempt to negotiate.

Re-bidding should be avoided whenever possible because of the additional time and costs incurred by all parties.  Where a re-bid is unavoidable, the Bid Documents should be sufficiently modified to achieve a reduced bid price that will be acceptable to the Owner.

A standard 'privilege clause' in the bidding requirements would give the Owner the right to not accept any bid, thereby permitting the Owner to either abandon the project or reject all bids, and subsequently invite a re-bid on modified Bid Documents under a new bid call.  However, since it is recommended that the Owner negotiate with the lowest compliant bidder in some circumstances, it is important that the bidding requirements include a clause giving the Owner, if necessary, the right to negotiate a reduced price with the lowest compliant bidder.

Disclosure Of Tender Information
Any information contained in a document deposited at a public tendering, which is being used in evaluation of a bid and subsequent contract award, shall be disclosed by the owner or agent upon request by any interested party at the tender opening or any time thereafter.

For electronic procurement, BCCA supports the requirements of CCA 90 Guidelines for Electronic Procurement, 11. Bid Results: All bid results should be electronically recorded, compiled, reported, and transmitted, or, in the alternative, be readily accessible to all interested bidders as soon as practical after the bid closing time. The process of electronic procurement should not be used to avoid a public opening process. Therefore, the instructions to bidders should specify procedure for bidders to electronically obtain bid results or witness, in person, the opening of bids, as well as the anticipated time interval following bid closing after which bid results will be electronically transmitted or published.
Click here for BCCA's Recommended Guidelines for Electronic Bid Openings in pdf.

Minority Preferences and Set-aside Programs
The British Columbia Construction Association strongly endorses the principle that neither the sex, race, religion, nor geographic domicile within the Province of the principal owners of a firm, its employees, or labour force, should be a consideration in the procurement of construction materials or services. Furthermore, the Association vigorously opposes any procurement practice or program which seeks to confer exclusive bidding rights to firms based upon any of the foregoing characteristics.

Pre-qualification
BCCA and its regional associations recognize the need for Pre-qualification in limited circumstances. Generally the ability of the Contractor to secure the necessary bonds is the sole criteria by which Contractors should be pre-qualified. Where it is deemed through the use of the Pre-Qualification Best Practice Checklist* that a pre-qualification is appropriate, the use of the CCDC 29 A Guide to Pre-qualification should be implemented to ensure a fair, open and transparent pre-qualification process, for General Contractors and Trade Contractors.

Click here for the BCCA Guideline: Procurement Pre-Qualification Checklist 2017

*Source: Recommended Best Practices for Pre-Qualification for Selection of General Contractors and Consulting Services. Source: http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/tbs/camf.htm Copyright 2016 Province of British Columbia. Reproduced with permission.

Refundable Plan Deposits
Bidding documents should be made available to bidders for the least cost possible. In order of preference the BCCA suggests these options:

• a fully refundable deposit system for documents returned in the prescribed condition
• an industry managed document deposit program
• an industry coordinated document refund system
  • Example:
    • 5 bidders x $500
    • All bidders include $2,500
    • Purchase from unsuccessful bidder at $500 each
• an industry managed document production and sale system that minimizes, to the greatest extent possible, the cost of bid documents

Request for Proposals
BCCA supports the use of the Canadian Design Build Institute Document 210 RFP Guideline, as the guideline for all RFPs.

Private-Public Partnerships
BCCA supports the principles of private/public partnership for procurement or provision of public infrastructure, as long as acceptable standards of practice relating to the competition process are maintained.

Privatization of Government Services and Programs
BCCA supports the privatization of government services and programs that can be more effectively delivered by the private sector as long as privatization is implemented while maintaining acceptable standards of practice relating to a competitive process.

Publicly Funded Construction Projects
BCCA's policy is neutral on the choice of various procurement methods. Regardless of the procurement method, all projects must be procured in an open, fair, and transparent manner. BCCA supports the use of standard CCA and CCDC documents. Standards and Guidelines for publicly funded projects such as the Public Construction Council of BC's Guidelines for Publicly Funded Projects as well as CCDC 23 (A Guide to Calling Bids and Awarding Contracts), and all BCCA Policies for Publicly Funded Construction Procurement should always be followed on all taxpayer-funded construction projects. BCCA considers the term "Publicly Funded" to include funds from taxes at all levels of government as well as any other public assessments or user fees (such as airport improvement or security fees). These standards must apply regardless of the nature of the corporation or entity that is ultimately given the responsibility for the tendering and construction of these projects.

Reverse Auctions
CCA and BCCA recognize the value and benefits on Internet-based tendering and bidding, and endorses its use when intended to increase the efficiency of the construction tendering process. CCA actively supports the development, in concert with owners, contractors and other construction industry representatives, of appropriate guidelines for the use of electronic bidding practices. The concept of a bidding auction is contrary to the principles of recommended construction procurement practices, and as such, is strongly opposed by CCA and its constituent representatives. CCA therefore recommends that electronic bidding and tendering procedures comply with the provisions outlined in CCDC23:  A Guide to Calling Bids and Awarding Contracts.

Thresholds for Procurement of Publicly Funded Construction
The following thresholds should always be followed on all publicly funded construction projects:

1. Any construction opportunity (not limited to but including service, maintenance, small projects and capital projects) with an estimated value of less than $25,000 should be put out for bidding to a reasonable and cost-effective extent.
2. Any construction opportunity (not limited to but including service, maintenance, small projects and capital projects) with an estimated value of between $25,000 and $100,000 must have bids solicited by one of the following means:
   • Opportunities can be posted on BidCentral (and any other industry medium) for an open public bidding process; and/or
   • An invitation shall be extended to all contractors on the *registry of pre-approved contractors that meet the criteria for the specific project.
3. Any construction opportunity (not limited to but including service, maintenance, small projects and capital projects) with an estimated value over $100,000 must be advertised on BidCentral (and any other industry medium) in a fair, open and transparent public process.

*  The solicitation of contractors for the establishment of a registry of pre-approved contractors must be in a manner that is appropriate to the value, complexity and profile of the business opportunity with the following requirements;

• Must be obtained through an opportunity posted on BidCentral (and any other industry medium).
• Opportunities shall be solicited at regular intervals not to exceed one year.
• The opportunity for a contractor to be added to a registry of pre-approved contractors shall be provided continuously.

Unpaid Or Subsidized Workers
In order to maintain equitable tendering practices and to ensure the specified quality of workmanship, with the exception of persons employed as part of a job training or educational program, the British Columbia Construction Association does not support the use of non-paid workers, workers receiving alternate compensation, or workers who are part of workfare programs for the construction of public capital facilities.

In circumstances where these workers are to be used, full disclosure of all relevant information must be made available to all bidders in advance of the call for tenders.

Use Of Owner Forces

• BCCA promotes the use by government of the private sector for construction and engineering services, as this practice serves to develop more private sector capability.
• BCCA recognizes an owner's need for minor maintenance/emergency staff, but supports all capital projects being competitively tendered.
• BCCA opposes government-owned or controlled entities competing for construction contracts.
• BCCA opposes the government's practice of supporting crown corporations that compete with the private sector.

Separate, Alternate And Unit Prices
In the interest of maintaining clarity in the submission of amendments to Separate, Alternate and Unit Prices during a tender closing, BCCA endorses the policy that all monetary revisions to separate, alternate or unit prices should be stated as a new price in lieu of an addition to or deduction form the submitted price.

Tender Documents
Bidding documents should be made available to bidders for the least cost possible. In order of preference the BCCA suggests these options:

• a fully refundable deposit system for documents returned in the prescribed condition
• an industry managed document deposit program
• an industry coordinated document refund system
  • Example: 
    • 5 bidders x $500
    • All bidders include $2,500
    • Purchase from unsuccessful bidder at $500 each
• an industry managed document production and sale system that minimizes, to the greatest extent possible, the cost of bid documents

Tender Document Deposits
BCCA advocates and supports the national industry position of a refundable deposit system for tender documents.

Rationale:

• A non-refundable deposit system introduces a cost, which regardless of who initially pays, will ultimately increase the cost of construction. This is detrimental to both the owners and industry.
• Non-refundable deposits are an additional charge imposed upon contractors, which may discourage qualified bidders from bidding. Contractors already incur considerable costs in the preparation and submission of bids.
• Non-refundable deposits particularly penalize interested bidders who are not in close proximity to plan rooms where the project documents are available for viewing.
• A refundable deposit policy is environmentally responsible. Tender documents under a non-refundable system will be thrown away despite the need for many new sets by the successful bidder. Our industry encourages all owners to practice and implement the 3 R's (Reduce, Recycle and Reuse) recommended by governments.
• The provision of plans and specifications to interested bidders is a normal cost of project development that quite properly should not be borne by bidders who already provide a valuable service through the competitive bidding process.
• As contractors typically review the tender documents prior to deciding to tender, potentially interested and competitive contractors will be reluctant to request plans under a non-refundable policy.
• The imposition of non-refundable policy creates a system of procurement, which discriminates on the basis of ability to pay and proximity to local plan rooms, which should never be considered, particularly when a project is funded by taxpayers.
• The use of a non-refundable deposit system strains the good working relationship owners and design authorities currently enjoy with the construction industry.
• Refundable deposits, relative to the nature and size of the project, will deter frivolous requests for tender documents and penalize only those who abuse the refundable deposit system by not returning the plans in good condition.