Canadian Procurement Policy And COVID-19: Comparing Approaches

COVID-19 has impacted both the type of goods and services to be procured, and the manner in which certain procurements are carried out. In Canada, with its different levels of public procuring authorities, different approaches have been introduced in response to COVID-19 to address the acquisition of "essential" or "priority" goods and services, or to exercise a level of control over the supply chain. The Canadian federal government has ordered centralized the procurement and related processes for certain goods and services on behalf of the federal, provincial and territorial governments, and, at the provincial level, some provincial governments have implemented supply management arrangements. We briefly consider different approaches in the below.