Indigenous Procurement Program

The Indigenous Procurement Program supports Indigenous businesses to work with the Ontario government.

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About the program

The Indigenous Procurement Program helps Ontario ministries work with Indigenous businesses and organizations when buying goods or services to support government operations.

It increases visibility and access for Indigenous businesses by:

providing opportunities open only to Indigenous businesses
requiring contracts to include Indigenous businesses or partners
using evaluation criteria that encourage Indigenous participation or partnership plans

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Indigenous Procurement Program, you must fall into one of the following categories:

Be an Indigenous business

One or more Indigenous persons own and control at least 51% of the business or organization. Eligible types include:

sole proprietorships
corporations
co-operatives
partnerships
limited companies
First Nations bands and governments
not-for-profit organizations

Joint ventures or consortiums

If you are part of a joint venture or consortium (2 or more parties working together), at least one-third of the work must be completed by an Indigenous business.

The work can be done through the Indigenous partner or an Indigenous sub-contractor.

How it works

The Indigenous Procurement Program has 3 ways of prioritizing Indigenous opportunities:

Indigenous business set-aside
The government may carry-out a procurement that is open only for Indigenous businesses.
Indigenous participation requirements
Ministries may require that part of the work or contract be completed by an Indigenous partner or business.
Indigenous participation evaluation
With this procurement method, ministries may award higher evaluation scores to businesses or vendors that include Indigenous participation and partnership plans in their bids.

More information

Eligibility does not guarantee a procurement contract.
There are no costs or fees for Indigenous businesses to participate in the program.

How to find opportunities

Indigenous businesses can access government procurement opportunities through different ways:

Ontario Tenders Portal

Current procurement opportunities are on the Ontario Tenders Portal.
Eligible businesses can register as supplier to receive alerts about the latest procurement opportunities.