Town of Erin Procurement Process

Date: Oct 21, 2020

The Town has recently received questions and comments regarding the Town of Erin’s Procurement process. To provide further detail of the Town’s procurement process, please see below. If you have any questions regarding the process, please contact us by calling 519.855.4407 or emailing Communications@erin.ca.

In accordance to our Procurement By-Law (By-Law #17-39).  The By-Law required the preparation of a Request for Formal Quotation (RFQ).  Section 1.2 of the By-Law also outlines the following five Goals:

• Efficient/Effective Procurement: To procure in the most efficient and cost effective manner goods and/or services and realize optimum quality, quantity, price, delivery and performance.
• Openness and Transparency: To encourage open competitive bidding for the acquisition or disposal of all goods and/or services based on a clear definition of the product or service required and a clear outline of the criteria used in the evaluation.
• Objectivity: Procurement of goods and services will be approached in an unbiased way not influenced by personal preferences, prejudices or interpretations.
• Accountability: Obligation to answer for procurement results and for the way that procurement responsibilities are delegated.
• Fairness: The procurement policies and processes will be applied equally to all bidders.

The Procurement Guidelines set out in Section 3 of the By-Law also include the following provisions:

• Confidentiality- There shall be no informal contact between Municipal staff or elected officials involved in the procurement process with potential suppliers during the evaluation period.
• Open Market Procurement - Except as otherwise stipulated, any Procurement shall be made on a competitive basis, in keeping with accepted public procurement practices and in accordance with applicable federal, provincial and municipal laws.
• Local Preference - The following two legislative documents prohibit municipalities from adopting a Local Preference Policy:
  • The Discriminatory Business Practices Act (R.S.O. 1990, Chapter D12), as amended; and
  • The Canadian Governments implementation of the Agreement of lnternal Trade.

The primary objective of the procurement process is to acquire Goods/Services at the lowest possible cost, consistent with the demands of suitability, quality, service, and delivery capabilities. lf in the determination of the Finance Department, a competitive market exists, and two or more compliant Bids are received and are identical in price, and provided suitability, quality, service, and delivery are similar, then priority of acceptance may be made first for a local Bid, if any then, for a regional Bid, if any otherwise, the Finance Department, will proceed to procure 'best and final offers' [BAFO] from the Bidders/Proponents involved in order to break the tie.

The Mayor and Council are prohibited under law to influence or change the results of the bidding process.

The Waste Removal Request for Quotation was prepared by staff and posted on Bids & Tenders on August 10^th, 2020.  The deadline for questions was August 14^th and the closing date was August 24^th.

The bid was posted on the Bids and Tenders electronic bidding page which is linked to the “Tenders & Quotes” page of our web site under “Current Bids”.

In addition to the web site posting the opportunity was advertised in the local paper.

We had 7 companies pick up the documents and received 4 bid submissions for the Request for Quotation.

The tender submissions were reviewed by staff and the contract was awarded to GFL Environmental Inc.  Their bid was found to be the most comprehensive and overall lowest bid for each section.  GFL Environmental Inc. has head offices in Pickering, Ontario and nearby satellite offices in Orangeville, Milton and Brampton.

This is a three (3) year contract with two (2) one year options to be extended at the discretion of the Director of Infrastructure Services and the agreement of the successful bidder.

The Waste Management Request for Quotation was conducted by staff in a manner that met all requirement of the Procurement By-Law as well as all applicable legislation.