Bid Opportunities

Thank you for considering doing business with the City of Victoria. Our BID system uses Bonfire to provide vendors and suppliers a streamlined process to source and respond to the City’s business opportunities.

Through Bonfire, suppliers and vendors can:

access the City’s business opportunities at no charge
submit bid responses online
search, sort and filter through the City’s opportunities
receive match notifications by defined categories of interest
view tender requirements and download documents
review project timelines and status throughout the process

How to Set Up Your Bonfire Account

To access the City of Victoria's bid opportunities, you will need to set up a Bonfire account.

Visit the Bonfire portal.
Click "Register" at the top right of the screen.
Complete the "Register as a Vendor" online form.
Click on "Create an Account".
You will receive a confirmation email. Once you confirm your registration, you may complete your vendor profile and select the Victoria category(ies) that match your business interest.

Access Bid Opportunities

Click here if you have questions on how to upload a submission to Bonfire.

What We Do

City of Victoria Supply Management Services maintains a competitive bidding process in accordance with municipal and provincial laws. We are conscious of our responsibility in the expenditure of public funds, including the acquisition of goods and services amounting to millions of dollars annually. Suppliers and vendors are encouraged to participate in bidding for the City's various requirements.

Purchases are made from local, provincial, national and international sources of supply, depending upon the nature and type of purchase.

Please direct any inquiries to purchasing@victoria.ca.

Selling to the City

All significant purchasing for the City is done by the City's Supply Management Services.

When looking to sell your product or service to the City, make your first call here. All potential suppliers are encouraged to register their firms with the City's bid and tender platform Bonfire. See the "Bid Opportunity" link above to create an account.

We purchase materials, supplies, equipment, rentals and services, when required, by the various City departments, as economically as possible with due regard for price, availability, quality and service, so as to provide the best value. This is accomplished by standardization and competitive bidding on the basis of adequate specifications whenever possible.

Tenders, Request for Proposals, and Request for Offers covering City contracts are advertised on the City's website as per City Purchasing Policy. When they are, look for them on our website above under Bid Opportunities.

Interested suppliers should:

be sure your tender/proposal/offer is submitted to the Supply Management office before the stated closing time, or it will be returned unopened
be sure to read the documents thoroughly and comply with all the instructions and conditions. We do not want to be in a position of having to reject your offer for non-compliance
contractors will be asked to submit Insurance and WorkSafe BC Requirements prior to commencement of any work for the City

Approved Product Information

The City of Victoria is committed to ensuring that the citizens of Victoria are supplied with goods and materials which adhere to the highest standards, as well as ensuring long-term value. In order to accomplish these goals, the Engineering & Public Works Department has developed, and maintains, an Approved Products List (APL) and a set of guidelines for suppliers wishing to submit products for evaluation by the City of Victoria in the following specific areas:

Sanitary Sewer, Storm Drain and Watermain Construction products
Road Construction products
Traffic Control Systems products
Street Lighting products
Approved Product List
Product Approval Guidelines
Product Approval Process
Product Approval Application

Social Value and Sustainability

The City of Victoria is committed to leading and supporting socially responsible procurement that grows a strong, inclusive economy in ways that are practical, achievable, transparent and measurable.

The City considers the environmental, social and economic value of the goods and services being purchased with the intent to shift spending away from those that negatively impact the environment and society, towards products and services that are more environmentally sound and socially beneficial.

Recognizing its role as a major purchaser of goods and services, the City seeks opportunities to encourage and influence markets for environmentally and socially preferable products through employee education; supporting pilot testing of potential new products; and adopting innovative product standards, specifications and contracts.

Social Procurement

Purchases should be leveraged to improve the economic, social and environmental well-being of the community.

Social Enterprise Development – strengthen and grow businesses already doing business with community benefit in mind and grow the social enterprise sector.
Leading Economic Change – make the mainstream economy more inclusive to ensure there is always an opportunity for everyone to prosper.

Values

Our overarching goal is the removal of barriers so all current and future members of our community can participate in society and prosper, and is based on the following values:

Social Justice (removes systemic barriers)
Intersectionality (reflects multiple lived experiences)
Quality of Life (health, happiness and satisfaction)
Resilience and Prosperous Community (inclusion and access)

The City's RFPs ask proponents to describe their internal efforts that align with the City’s social value and sustainability commitments such as:

Advanced health and safety practices
Employee training and apprenticeship programs
Diverse employment policies
Fair or living wages
Advanced environmental and sustainability practices

A strong RFP response will include details on a proponent's program or objective, business practices or activities to support social procurement.

Purchasing Policies and Forms

If you are considering doing business with the City of Victoria please review the following links.

The City is committed to our vendors and is encouraging Electronic Transactions. The City encourages vendors not yet being paid electronically to take this opportunity to enroll in our eCommerce Direct Deposit Payments program.