Standing Offer
A pre-arranged Canadian government procurement vehicle that lets buyers issue call-ups for cleaning services on demand, at pre-negotiated rates, without re-running a full RFP each time.
Definition
A standing offer is a procurement arrangement in which one or more vendors agree to provide specified goods or services to government buyers at pre-negotiated rates and terms over a defined period, usually one to five years with optional renewal periods. Standing offers are not contracts themselves: they are offers held open by the vendor. When a buyer needs the service, they issue a call-up against the standing offer, which then becomes the binding contract for that specific work. Cleaning services standing offers are common at the federal level and increasingly used by provincial and municipal buyers for routine janitorial and specialized cleaning work.
How it works in Canadian procurement
Public Services and Procurement Canada sets up standing offers through a competitive RFSO (Request for Standing Offer) process posted on CanadaBuys. Vendors compete on price, qualifications, and capacity; multiple vendors may be selected for the same standing offer if the work scope spans regions, security clearances, or service categories. Once awarded, buyers across federal departments can issue call-ups directly to the standing offer holders without re-running a competition, subject to rotational rules or right-of-first-refusal terms. Call-ups are themselves contracts and may appear in proactive disclosure, even though no fresh RFP was posted. This is why historical award data often shows many small contracts to the same vendor over time: each one is a call-up under one underlying standing offer.
Common confusions
Standing offers are sometimes confused with supply arrangements, which are a related but distinct vehicle. The key difference: in a standing offer, the vendor has agreed to pre-set rates and the buyer can call up directly; in a supply arrangement, the vendor is pre-qualified but pricing is competed at each call-up. Another confusion: a standing offer's stated maximum dollar value is a ceiling, not a guarantee. Vendors may win a standing offer with a large ceiling and receive few or zero call-ups. Conversely, multi-million-dollar cleaning standing offers are often built up from many small monthly call-ups across many sites rather than one large contract event.
Frequently asked questions
Not directly. The standing offer is the agreement to provide goods or services at fixed rates. Each call-up issued against the standing offer is the binding contract.
Typically one to three years, with optional extension periods of one to two years each. Specific terms vary by tender.
Yes. Proactive disclosure shows each call-up as a separate contract record. Aggregating those by vendor and buyer reveals the underlying standing offer activity.
Related terms
- Supply Arrangement — A federal Canadian procurement vehicle that pre-qualifies vendors for future competitive call-ups, without committing to fixed pricing up front.
- Request for Proposal (RFP) — A formal procurement notice used by Canadian government buyers to solicit competitive bids for goods or services, including cleaning and janitorial contracts.
- Incumbent Vendor — The vendor currently holding the contract being re-tendered.
- CanadaBuys — The Government of Canada's central electronic tendering service for federal goods and services procurement, including most federal cleaning contracts.
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