The Ontario Government has made its priorities clear: when public dollars are spent, they should help strengthen Ontario businesses, workers and supply chains. Now we need to make it easy to deliver on that promise.
As of May 15th, the Ontario government required municipalities to implement a Buy Ontario policy that prioritizes Ontario and Canadian goods and services (including labor hours) in their capital infrastructure projects.
But the policy is not working as intended – it is confusing, fragmented, and adds a new layer of red tape, cost, and uncertainty for the Ontario businesses it is meant to support.
Municipalities are left to develop their own forms, requirements, thresholds, and interpretations of the Directive. Contractors and suppliers are being required to provide detailed supply-chain and domestic-content information repeatedly for every tender they bid on and navigate varying requirements from municipality to municipality. For contractors operating across the GTA, that is exactly the kind of procurement fragmentation that industry has been working to eliminate.
The result is more red tape, cost escalations, project delays, disputes, and reduced competition. Instead of making it easier for Ontario businesses to compete for Ontario public work, the current system is creating new barriers to participation, especially for small- and medium-sized businesses.
When the Math Doesn’t Add Up
The 10% evaluation advantage is the clearest example of how a well-intentioned Buy Ontario policy can produce the opposite result. Municipalities that have chosen this approach have faced substantially higher project costs for little or no meaningful increase in Ontario content. In one example, a municipality would have paid approximately $500,000 more for a bridge project to achieve just one additional percentage point of Ontario content: 90% compared with 89% from the lowest qualified bidder.
That is not a sustainable way to strengthen Ontario’s economy. It risks diverting scarce municipal dollars away from the critical infrastructure communities need, while creating disputes, procurement uncertainty and delays in awarding contracts. Rather than strengthening Ontario businesses, the 10% model can undermine established, competitive procurement processes and make it harder for municipalities to deliver their capital plans.
Municipalities should avoid adopting this approach as part of their policies, and the Province should reconsider the 10% evaluation advantage altogether.
Successful approaches
When the Directive was first launched in April 2026, TARBA, GTSWCA and HCAT, encouraged municipalities to adopt the Ministry of Transportation’s (MTO) Buy Ontario policy to help establish a clear and consistent model: identify the relevant major goods and services, require a standardized Domestic Supply Chain Plan, establish a measurable 51%+ Ontario/Canadian content commitment, and allow supply chains to be updated as projects move forward. We applaud the municipalities that selected this approach.
The City of Toronto is also taking a thoughtful, industry-informed approach. Its proposed commitment framework recognizes that not every infrastructure project has the same supply chain – a point the civil industry has made from the beginning. Roads, sewers and water infrastructure have much more local supply chains, while specialized projects may rely more heavily on global suppliers. Additionally, the City has taken our proposal to have only the three low-bid compliant bidders submit a completed Domestic Supply Chain Plan after bid closing to reduce the administrative burden for both contractors and municipal staff.
Both approaches are practical, helping municipalities implement Buy Ontario without unintentionally making it harder for Ontario businesses to compete.
A better way forward
In the immediate, the Ontario government should standardize its Directive for linear infrastructure to follow the MTO policy approach: one threshold, identified major goods and services and simple source table for its Domestic Supply Chain Plan, along with a contractor commitment and attestation. A standardized policy approach for every municipality.
But the Directive in its current form focuses on the supply chain of each individual project rather than building up our domestic supplier base. Ontario businesses should not have to prove they are Ontario businesses over and over again.
The Buy Ontario framework is a long-term economic development strategy. To deliver on that, the next step should be to establish an Ontario/Canadian verification model.
The principle is simple: verify businesses, suppliers, products and material sources once, then allow municipalities and contractors to rely on that information across procurements.
A centralized provincial system could establish standardized definitions and criteria, provide annual or periodic certification, and give qualified businesses a recognized status that can be used across municipal procurements. The province could build on systems that already exist, including existing municipal pre-qualified supplier lists, MTO’s Designated Sources for Materials, Supply Ontario procurement infrastructure, and the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Ontario Made registry.
It would make administration far simpler for municipalities, providing them with a trusted, consistent source for determining whether a business, supplier or material meets the applicable Ontario or Canadian criteria. It can also allow municipalities to pre-quality businesses operating in their communities, while leveling the playing field for the contractors bidding.
It would give businesses both a competitive advantage and the information they need to strategically source Ontario/Canadian materials.
It would help the provincial government identify where the gaps are in domestic supply chains and start the discussion on building that capacity locally.
Ontario should move Buy Ontario from a project-by-project paperwork exercise to a one-time business qualification system, allowing municipalities to prioritize Ontario and Canadian businesses while reducing procurement complexity, protecting competition, and accelerating infrastructure delivery. It is a scalable approach that can also be applied to other sectors beyond construction.
At a time of global economic uncertainty, strengthening domestic supply chains is not just good procurement policy. It is good economic policy. Ontario is investing billions in critical infrastructure including roads, transit, water and wastewater. Those investments should help sustain Ontario jobs, businesses, manufacturers, suppliers and skilled trades.
Industry is not asking to step back from Buy Ontario. We are asking to make the policy work as intended.
Buy Ontario should reward Ontario businesses for being Ontario businesses. It should not punish them with more red tape.