Lowest evaluated price

"Lowest evaluated price" describes the family of Canadian bid selection methods in which, once bids pass the mandatory criteria, price drives the award — either alone or combined with technical scoring. The closest American label is "lowest price technically acceptable" (LPTA), but Canadian tender notices do not use that phrase: they spell out the basis of selection directly.

What it is

Per CanadaBuys, bids are normally evaluated on technical merit and overall best value, with financial information assessed separately from technical information. Once a bid meets the mandatory criteria, the buyer applies the selection method stated in the tender notice. The methods CanadaBuys describes are: the lowest-priced bid (lowest price is the determining factor); best overall value, often computed as the lowest evaluated price per point (bid price divided by total points achieved in the technical evaluation); and the highest technical bid within a stipulated budget.

Treasury Board guidance used in PSPC's own professional-services contracting breaks the same idea into four selection approaches: lowest evaluated price with mandatory requirements only; lowest evaluated price with mandatory plus point-rated criteria; lowest price per point (equal weighting of price and rated criteria); and a combination of technical merit and price where one factor is weighted more heavily.

How it differs from LPTA

LPTA — award to the lowest-priced offer that is merely rated acceptable on technical merit — is United States federal terminology. US GAO reports describe agencies' use of the "lowest price technically acceptable" process, and US defence regulations restrict when it may be used. Canadian federal guidance does not use the phrase; the equivalent mechanism appears in Canada as the "lowest-priced bid" method, while the other Canadian methods (price per point, combined merit and price) blend technical quality into the price comparison rather than treating technical acceptability as a pass/fail gate.

What it means for vendors

Read the basis of selection in the tender notice before you price. Under a lowest-priced bid method, a difference as small as cents can decide the award, so pricing competitiveness matters more than any embellishment beyond the mandatory criteria. Under price-per-point methods, every rated point you earn lowers your effective price ratio, so strong responses to point-rated criteria can beat a cheaper competitor. Either way, financial envelopes are opened and assessed separately, so technical quality is judged before anyone looks at your numbers.

Common questions

Is the lowest evaluated price the same as the lowest bid?

Not always. Under the plain lowest-priced bid method they coincide for compliant bids. Under point-rated methods the "evaluated price" is price relative to points earned, so a higher-priced bid with a stronger technical score can win.

Do Canadian tenders ever say "LPTA"?

You will not find the phrase in CanadaBuys guidance or in Treasury Board evaluation guidance. If you see LPTA in a bid document, it is almost certainly borrowing US practice; look for the Canadian basis of selection language instead.

Related definitions

Evaluation criteria weighting · Two-envelope vs. BAFO evaluation · Proposal vs. tender