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Asking Bid Questions on Ontario Tenders: How to Use the Question Period Before It Closes

Bid Scout · Tue Oct 20, 2026 · 7:08 AM ET

Every Ontario public tender has a second deadline that's easy to skip past: the question deadline. It usually lands days before closing, and once it passes, your chance to get the buyer to fix a vague spec, a missing drawing or an odd pricing form is mostly gone.

Here's how the question period works on municipal tenders, and how to use it well.

Find the question deadline first

On bids&tenders portals, the question deadline sits on the public listing, right under the closing date. Four open electrical bids show how much lead time you get:

That's a gap of five to fourteen days between the last question and closing. If you only diarize the closing date, you'll find the problem in the drawings after the window has shut.

Put it in writing, through the system

Buyers want questions in writing, through one channel. Thunder Bay's standard Information to Tenderers says no oral interpretations will be made about the meaning of the contract documents, and questions go to the Purchasing Representative through the bidding system's "Submit a Question" button. The same document says verbal answers are only binding when they're confirmed by written addenda.

Oshawa's Bid Submission Procedure works the same way: interpretations in reply to bidder queries are given only as written addenda, posted to the bidding system, with an email sent automatically to all plan takers.

That second point matters. Your question and its answer usually go to every registered bidder. Ask what you need answered, and don't put your pricing strategy in the question.

Talk only to the named contact

In Toronto, the rule has teeth, at least in City guidance from 2013 and 2017. The City's 2013 interpretation bulletin on lobbying and procurements explains that under its Procurement Processes Policy, from the time a call is issued until the award is announced, communication is allowed only with the official point of contact named in the call. That stretch is sometimes called the "blackout period". A 2017 Lobbyist Registrar report to Council quotes the policy: vendors are strictly prohibited from talking to any other City staff, official or councillor about the call. It also notes that a breach can mean disqualification from the call or future calls, at Council's discretion. Those documents are several years old, so check the current rules in your own tender documents before you rely on them.

Other buyers word it differently, but the safe habit is the same everywhere: one contact, in writing, through the portal.

Questions worth asking

Good bid questions are specific and tied to a document reference. For electrical work, the usual ones are:

If you think a specified method won't work, Thunder Bay's template says to tell the Contract Administrator in writing, give your reasons and, if you like, suggest an alternative. The Administrator may then issue an addendum.

After the deadline: read every addendum

Answers come back as addenda, and they can change the job. Thunder Bay's template says each addendum must be acknowledged in the bidding system before closing, and a bid without that acknowledgement is incomplete and won't be accepted. If an addendum lands after you've submitted, the system withdraws your bid until you acknowledge it and resubmit.

A simple shop habit: the day you register as a plan taker, put three dates in your calendar (questions, any site meeting and closing), and do a full read of the documents at least two business days before the question deadline. That leaves time to write questions that actually get answered.

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Email jay@bidscoutontario.com with your trade and region.

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