Buyandsell.gc.ca Procurement Data is fully searchable. Using plain language search terms, you can find Government of Canada opportunities in your industry as well as past awards.
Free of charge and without registering, you can access all listed tenders, bookmark and share searches, subscribe to syndication feeds to receive updates and download an unlimited number of opportunities.
The following will explain how to:
Table of Contents
- How do I find opportunities?
- How do I search for opportunities?
- How do I match opportunities to my business profile?
- How do I get notified about amendments or opportunities matching my business?
- How do I find partners or understand my competition?
- How do I download tender documents?
- What is exactly the tenders data?
How do I find opportunities?
Find opportunities by category
Access tender notices by goods and services categories, broken down by:
Or browse tender notices by status:
How do I search for opportunities?
The quickest way to search for tenders is to click the Active tenders quick search icon on the Tenders page. This will display all active Government of Canada tenders.
Use plain language to type in the search box the good or service related to your industry.
Buyandsell.gc.ca uses Boolean search operators (AND, OR, NOT) to separate keywords. (Note: Boolean operators must be ALL CAPS. To learn more, read the Search tips on the Help page).
Refine your search by selecting search facets to filter your search on the search results page. To learn more about a specific tender notice, click the notice title.
Read Steps to search and follow tenders to learn how to search for active tender notices.
How do I match opportunities to my business profile?
On the search results page, you can use keywords and search facets to filter your search to match opportunities to your industry – to create opportunity-matching searches.
On the search results page, you can refine your search by region, a good or service, department issuing the opportunity, or any number of combinations of the facets and keywords (using Boolean Search Operators: AND, OR, NOT). Put quotation marks around a phrase or concept of two or more words to ensure that the exact phrase or concept will be searched for as a whole and not picked apart by the search engine. (To learn more, read the Search tips on the Help page).
Selecting more than one facet within each category will broaden the search, such as selecting the location Ontario and Quebec will provide results for both of those provinces.
To get email alerts for any number of your opportunity-matching searches, read the Follow Opportunities page.
How do I use the Goods and Services facet?
The Goods and Services facet corresponds to the Government of Canada’s Goods and Services Identification Number (GSIN) system of coding commodities.
On the search results page, narrow down in a hierarchal fashion from the top-level category, down the GSIN tree, to a specific code aligned to your industry. (Do you know what GSIN codes correspond to your industry? Browse the GSIN Codes to find your good or service.)
How do I get notified about amendments or opportunities matching my business?
Bookmark your search result
At any point as you refine your search or if you find an opportunity of interest, you can save, bookmark, or share the URL (the Web page address). Revisit your custom bookmark to view the latest tenders in your custom search or to find amendments to the tender you are following. The URL will stay the same when new information is available.
Create a web feed (get email updates)
Buyandsell.gc.ca/tenders provides web feeds that you can use to keep yourself informed of new opportunities or amendments. Click on the RSS feed icon 
or the Atom feed icon 
to create a subscription to the search parameters you have specified or to a specific tender of interest.
Find more information about staying on top of the latest information and how to get email updates in the Follow Opportunities page.
How do I find partners or understand my competition?
Buyandsell.gc.ca provides a number of ways to help you understand your competition or find possible bid partners.
Join a List of Interested Suppliers
Join a List of Interested Suppliers (LIS) to show your interest in an active tender notice or check it out to understand the market interest in a notice. An LIS allows businesses to add their company name and contact information to a publicly available list of parties who have expressed an interest in a particular tender published on Buyandsell.gc.ca.
Analyze procurement data
Where available, all tender notices are linked to information about contracts awarded by PWGSC since January 2009 (Contract History) and PWGSC-issued active Standing Offers and Supply Arrangements held by pre-qualified suppliers. You can also use the “Award Notice” in the Procurement Data facet to find tenders awarded by government departments and agencies.
All of the procurement data on Buyandsell.gc.ca is connected by a Goods and Services Identification Number (GSIN) code. The federal government uses GSIN Codes to identify generic product descriptions for Government of Canada commodities
When registering to obtain a Procurement Business Number (PBN), businesses use these codes to identify the goods and/or services they provide. Government buyers then use these codes to search by commodity to find suppliers.
If you know the GSIN(s) that relate to your business, you can search for opportunities or past contracts and prequalified suppliers using these codes. Find a Goods and Services Identification Number (GSIN).
The new procurement data, searchable on Buyandsell.gc.ca or downloadable in open data format, can be used to discover companies doing business with a specific government department or agency, in your industry, or region and how much they got paid.
Access anonymous Web usage statistics
Each tender notice on Buyandsell.gc.ca lists the number of page views and notice document downloads to provide an indicator of market interest in the opportunity. Add up the metrics found on the notice’s English and French pages to understand market interest. Find the definitions for the metrics found on tender notice pages on the Tenders Frequently Asked Questions page.
Share with one click
You can email or post a tender notice's URL directly to your LinkedIn or Twitter account to express your interest in collaborating on a Government of Canada opportunity. The tender information will always be current, because the URL web address you have shared will point to the latest information.
Use or establish third-party services
The private sector including tender publishing companies, industry associations and others are encouraged to subscribe to Buyandsell.gc.ca’s free of charge syndication feeds. Any refined search, from a specific tender to a collection of goods, can be turned into a feed, allowing service providers to add features and capabilities that are tailored to their stakeholder’s needs and interests.
How do I download tender documents?
If there are any documents associated to a tender, you will find these at the end of the notice. You simply have to click the file to download the documentation. If there are construction drawings, you can download the documents and bring them to a print shop or other professional printing services for printing.
What is exactly the tenders data?
Find definitions for the various facets in the Data Fields and Definitions section of the Download Tenders Data page.