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ARTICLE · 05 MAY 2020

Responding To Public Tenders: Beware Of Unbalanced Unit Prices

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In its recent decision in Municipalité de Piedmont v. Uniroc Construction Inc., the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that a public sector client must reject a bid whose unit prices are unbalanced.

CanadaLitigation, Mediation & Arbitration
Richard R Provost
Richard R Provost
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In its recent decision in Municipalité de Piedmont v. Uniroc Construction Inc.1, the Quebec Court of Appeal ruled that a public sector client must reject a bid whose unit prices are unbalanced. At the same time, it reiterated that the principle of balance and equality between bidders must prevail. 

The facts

The Municipality of Piedmont ("Piedmont")  issued a public tender for a water main replacement. 

Piedmont's tender documents required bidders to include, in their price schedule, a unit price for rock excavation based on a volume of 8,700 cubic metres, as estimated by professionals. These documents expressly prohibited bidders from "unbalancing" their bid. 

Uniroc Construction Inc. ("Uniroc") considered that the volume to be excavated was overestimated by the professionals at Piedmont, and chose to submit a unit price that appeared to be significantly lower than market price. 

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