CFTA thresholds

The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) sets dollar-value thresholds for government procurement. Below the threshold, a public buyer has wide freedom in how it purchases; above it, the CFTA's procurement chapter kicks in and the opportunity generally must be tendered openly, without discriminating against out-of-province suppliers.

The numbers

Thresholds differ by sector and were last revised in July 2022. For core government (provinces, territories, and their entities), the thresholds for goods and services sit at $30,300, and for construction contracts at $1,033,000. For the MASH sector — municipalities, school boards, universities, colleges and hospitals — the goods and services threshold is $103,000 and construction is $260,000. Federal-level buying is covered by additional treaties (CETA and others) with their own annex of values.

Two cautions: thresholds are amended periodically, so always verify against the current CFTA annex before relying on a specific figure; and the threshold is measured over the total estimated value of what's being bought — splitting a purchase into several small contracts to stay under a threshold is generally treated as circumvention, not compliance.

Why it matters to you

If you sell to government

Anything above the threshold must be openly advertised, which is why most opportunities you'll see on tender platforms sit above these values. It also means a buyer in another province can't lawfully shut you out of an above-threshold competition just because you're out-of-province.

If you are a buyer

Above-threshold purchases carry non-discrimination obligations, a requirement to advertise publicly, and standing obligations around bid challenge — the CITT bid-challenge process applies to CFTA-covered procurement.

Related definitions

MASH sector · CITT bid-challenge process · Sole-source procurement