File 1 - Introduction to the BSDQ
Step 1
First contact with the BSDQ
Step 2
How to use the BSDQ
Step 3
After the project owner's closure
Step 4
Complaint
The BSDQ is a private non-profit organization founded by three organizations over 50 years ago.
It serves to regulate the bidding process between specialized and general contractors in a call for tenders.
To this end, a Tendering Code was established. This reference document includes the rules and obligations to which contractors who commit to the BSDQ adhere.
The Tendering Code aims to:
- Enable the recipient of bids to effectively compare them.
- Assure the recipient of bids that the bidders have made a serious effort to provide the best possible price, based on market realities.
- Establish common bidding rules for all calls for tenders.
- Allow everyone, including project owners, to benefit from healthy competition and protect stakeholders from abuse in the bidding process and contract awarding.
All tenders handled by the BSDQ must be submitted and taken possession of via the "electronic bid transmission" tool, commonly known as TES.
The TES is a web-based computer system developed by the BSDQ for its users, designed to deposit, make available, take possession of, and consult tenders digitally. Using the TES only requires internet access, no software installation is needed.
To make its use easier, user guides are available to assist users.
The BSDQ offers several other tools for its users:
- Project Bulletin Board – Consult projects registered with the BSDQ.
- Geolocator – Find the governed specialties to the BSDQ regions, the committed contractors, and the open projects on an interactive map.
- TES Demo – Test your use of the TES without fear of making mistakes by using fictitious projects.
- BSDQ Training – Learn all the ins and outs of the BSDQ and TES with the guidance of a BSDQ trainer.
Additionnal information
Related Tendering Code articles
It should be noted that, for interpretation purposes, the French text shall prevail over the English, the latter being a translation of the French original.
Chapter A - Articles A-1 to A-16
A-1 Call for Tenders
Any invitation to tender in any form whatsoever or the delivery or availability of tender documents.
A-2 BSDQ
The Bureau des soumissions déposées du Québec, an organisation made up of the Association de la construction du Québec (ACQ), the Corporation des maîtres électriciens du Québec (CMEQ) and the Corporation des maîtres mécaniciens en tuyauterie du Québec (CMMTQ).
A-3 Repealed section
A-4 Code
The tendering rules contained herein.
A-5 Tendering Documents
Invitations to tender, notices to tenderers, calls for tenders, plans, drawings, specifications, administrative and technical clauses, general and specific clauses, security and surety bond documents, addenda, tender forms, price schedules, instructions to tenderers, and all other documents issued by the project owner or their representative and the BSDQ establishing the
conditions required for the submission of a tender.
A-6 Recipient Contractor
The contractor to whom one or many tenders are or may be addressed in any quality whatsoever:
- for the purpose of a tender that they will themselves address to the project owner, or,
- for the purpose of performing work covered by a tender that they have already addressed to the project owner, or
- for the purpose of performing work covered by a contract that they have already entered with the project owner.
Presumptions: Any person, other than the project owner, who holds a contractor’s licence and to whom tenders must be addressed is presumed to be a recipient contractor.
Any person, other than the project owner, who holds a contractor’s licence and to whom tenders must be addressed is deemed to be a recipient contractor if the tenders must be addressed to them with a view to the conclusion of a contract between them and the successful tenderer.
A-6.1 Recipient Contractor for a Sub-File
When a sub-file is opened by the BSDQ for a registered project, the term “recipient contractor” used also means the tendering contractor to whom one or more tenders are, or may be, addressed for the purposes of a tender that tendering contractor will file themselves, through the BSDQ, to a recipient contractor.
A-7 Successful Recipient Contractor
The recipient contractor who has been or is awarded a contract for work for which one or several tenders have been addressed to them.
A-8 Repealed section
A-9 Related Group
The term “related g roup” m entioned i n this Code h as the s ame m eaning a s that provided for i n Sections 17 to 21 of the Taxation Act (CQLR, chapter I-3).
A-10 Business hours
The hours between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. on each business day, for the purposes of Section F-2 of this Code.
A-11 Business days
Monday through Friday, inclusively, excluding public holidays and all days included in the construction industry’s vacation periods.
A-12 Project owner
The person on whose behalf the work is performed.
A-13 Tender Price
The total amount of the tender remuneration excluding the Goods and Services Tax (GST) and the Quebec Sales Tax (QST).
A-13.1 Procedure established by the BSDQ for using the TES
Detailed procedure setting out and describing the steps to follow to use the TES programs and modules and to complete the various stages of the process of filing and taking possession of tenders electronically. This procedure is specified in the guides made available to TES users by the BSDQ.
A-13.2 TES User Protocol
Protocol setting out the rights and obligations of TES users, the signing of which grants access to the TES through the assignment of a master user code and password by the BSDQ.
A-14 Tender
A written or verbal offer whereby a person undertakes to provide services or perform work, whether labour and materials or labour only, in return for remuneration regardless of the criteria for remuneration, whether lump sum, fixed fee, percentage, daily rate, unit rate, or otherwise.
A-15 Specialty
Any category of work which, by virtue of the tendering documents or the customs and practices of the construction industry, constitutes a technical activity that, for tendering purposes, is distinct from other activities or specialties.
Specialties subject to the rules of this Code are so either by operation of law or in accordance with Schedule I following the adoption of a subjection resolution. They are listed in Schedule I.
A-16 TES (Electronic Tender Transmission)
Computer system developed by the BSDQ and consisting of programs and modules that enable tenders to be filed, made available, taken possession of, and viewed electronically. The procedure established by the BSDQ for its use and the Protocol for Use enabling access to the TES are defined in Sections A-13.1 and A-13.2 of this Code.