Canada Amends Federal Procurement Challenge Rules, Remedies

Last week, the Government of Canada published an Order in Council amending the Canadian International Trade Tribunal Procurement Inquiry Regulations to clarify which bidders have access to Canada's federal procurement challenge regime and to codify the limits on compensation that may be awarded by the Canadian International Trade Tribunal ("CITT") to successful complainants who are not ultimately awarded the contract.

Under the current framework, Canada's federal procurement challenge system is limited to Canadian suppliers and suppliers from countries with which Canada has an applicable government procurement agreement. This results stems primarily from the Supreme Court of Canda's decision in Northrop Grumman Overseas Services Corp. v. Canada, wherein the Court determined that foreign bidders could not rely on the Agreement on Internal Trade (the predecessor agreement to the Canadian Free Trade Agreement) to challenge Canadian procurements open to "Canadian