In Canadian contract law, Contract A is a concept applied by Canadian courts regarding the fair and equal treatment of bidders in a

contract tendering process An invitation to tender (ITT, otherwise known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business ...

. Essentially this concept formalizes previously applied precedents and strengthens the protection afforded to those who submit bids in the tendering process. The concept was introduced in 1981 by the

Supreme Court of Canada The Supreme Court of Canada (SCC; french: Cour suprême du Canada, CSC) is the highest court in the judicial system of Canada. It comprises nine justices, whose decisions are the ultimate application of Canadian law, and grants permission to ...

, in ''

R. v. Ron Engineering and Construction (Eastern) Ltd ''R v Ron Engineering and Construction (Eastern) Ltd'', of 1981 is the leading Supreme Court of Canada decision on the law of tendering for contracts. The case concerned the issue of whether the acceptance of a call for tenders for a construction j ...

''. The court found that a "

duty of fairness A duty (from "due" meaning "that which is owing"; fro, deu, did, past participle of ''devoir''; la, debere, debitum, whence " debt") is a commitment or expectation to perform some action in general or if certain circumstances arise. A duty may ...

" was owed to all bidders by an owner in a tendering process. Supreme court of Canada in summer

A Contract A, a "process contract", Court of Appeal for British Columbia
Tercon Contractors Ltd. v. British Columbia (Transportation and Highways)
2007 BCCA 592, footnote 1, published 3 December 2007, accessed 29 July 2021 is formed between the owner (person, company or organization tendering the project) and each bidder when a "request for proposal" is responded to in the form of a compliant bid, sometimes also known as submission of price. The owner must deal fairly and equally with all bidders, and must not show any favouritism or

prejudice Prejudice can be an affect (psychology), affective feeling towards a person based on their perceived group membership. The word is often used to refer to a preconceived (usually unfavourable) evaluation or classification (disambiguation), classi ...

towards any bidder(s). In essence, this concept boils down to the right of an individual to have equal opportunity to be successful with their bid for work. A breach of Contract A may occur if the owner (or an owner's officer or representative, see

vicarious liability Vicarious liability is a form of a strict, secondary liability that arises under the common law doctrine of agency, '' respondeat superior'', the responsibility of the superior for the acts of their subordinate or, in a broader sense, the res ...

), provides information, changes specification during the tendering process to unfairly benefit a particular bidder, enters into closed negotiations with an individual bidder in an effort to obtain more desirable contract conditions, etc. The most common situation in which an owner is accused of having breached Contract A occurs when a bidder is selected who is not the lowest bidder. This contravenes established custom and practice, which would normally dictate that the lowest bid be awarded the subsequent contract to perform the work, Contract B, but is not normally a source of a breach if handled properly. The successful suits for breach typically occur if the lowest bidder has been excluded based on a stipulation not clearly outlined in the tender documents (such as preference for local bidders) or when the

Privilege Clause Privilege may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''Privilege'' (film), a 1967 film directed by Peter Watkins * ''Privilege'' (Ivor Cutler album), 1983 * ''Privilege'' (Television Personalities album), 1990 * '' Privilege (Abridged)'', an al ...

employed by the owner to exclude a principle of custom and practice is judged by the courts to be too broadly worded to have any meaning.

References

Canadian business law Personal selling {{industry-stub

See also

References