Government RFPs
Looking to shorten the far-too-often long and arduous RFP process? By adopting the Sourcewell solution for your project’s needs, you’ll be able to streamline it with no loss of potential options and effectively establish an even greater level of transparency and ease.
gtechna is an official Sourcewell supplier partner
Sourcewell is a government agency just like the government agencies it serves. Its goal is to streamline the RFP process so municipalities can quickly and easily find vendors with proven solutions that suit their needs—and the needs of their citizens. Click below to see how they work with gtechna to deploy flexible yet comprehensive parking enforcement solutions.
Learn moreThe benefits of working with gtechna + Sourcewell
The Sourcewell Advantage
Public purchasing agents face two questions every day: "What do I need to buy?" and "How am I going to buy it?". Learn how Sourcewell (formerly National Joint Powers Alliance) can help you streamline the procurement process.
Streamlined Solution
With gtechna and Sourcewell, you get a streamlined approach to procurement by being able to take advantage of pre-developed RFPs for national, competitive solicitations that meet or exceed local requirements, instead of having to draft proposals from scratch, saving you time, money, and effort.
Trusted Partners
Sourcewell is a public government agency that has facilitated hundreds of successful procurements and gtechna has over three decades of experience in developing solutions to fit the needs and goals of a wide variety of municipalities. Together, they’ll make your job easier, so you can rest easy knowing you’re working with tenured, proven, and trusted partners.
Yes. Sourcewell is a local unit of government, a public corporation, and agency under the Minnesota Constitution and its enabling law, Minnesota Statute § 123A.21. Sourcewell employees are government employees.
Any government, education, or nonprofit entity can use Sourcewell contracts without cost or obligation.
Interested public agencies can register online at sourcewell-mn.gov/register or by submitting a paper agreement downloaded from the same web page.
Joint powers and cooperative purchasing laws authorize participating agencies to access Sourcewell cooperative purchasing contracts. Sourcewell clients are responsible for ensuring compliance with state and local laws in their respective jurisdictions. A comprehensive list of state laws is included on the Sourcewell website on the “Compliance and Legal” page. Sourcewell continuously monitors changing laws and regulations affecting cooperative purchasing.
Sourcewell contracts are competitively solicited on behalf of Sourcewell and our participating agencies. Individual agencies are free to determine whether the awarded contracts meet their needs and local legal requirements.
Sourcewell’s procurement process is continuously improved to ensure compliance with state and federal requirements affecting a participating agency’s ability to use cooperative purchasing contracts. Standard federal terms and conditions are included in Sourcewell solicitations and contracts. For specific compliance questions, please contact supplier@sourcewell-mn.gov.
Get Started with Sourcewell
gtechna is an official Canoe supplier partner
The benefits of working with gtechna + Canoe
Creating Success with Sourcewell and Canoe
Canoe is Sourcewell’s Canadian market partner. Canoe Procurement Group of Canada is one of the largest public sector buying groups in the country. With the combined purchasing power of over 5,000 public and not-for-profit Canadian organizations, Canoe is uniquely positioned to get members access to a wide range of trade-compliant products and services at preferred rates.
The benefits of Canoe
Partnered with Sourcewell to maximize procurement potential, Canoe now services every Canadian province and operates as a unified identity for all Canadian municipal, public sector, and not-for-profit organizations to participate in collectively. Canoe vastly streamlines the procurement process without compromising options, with pre-developed RFPs for national, competitive solicitations that meet or exceed local requirements, saving time, money, and effort.
Rural Municipalities of Alberta
The Rural Municipalities of Alberta (RMA) has been representing Alberta’s 69 municipal districts, counties, specialized municipalities, and the Special Areas since 1909. It has a long history of cooperative procurement dating back to bulk purchases of rat poison for its members, one of the reasons Alberta remains rat-free today.
CivicInfo BC
CivicInfo BC is a non-profit society with a membership base that includes all local governments across British Columbia. It started in 1998, as a need was identified for an online information service that provides a wide variety of tools and information resources for those who work, or have an interest, in the province’s municipal sector.
Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities
The Saskatchewan Association of Rural Municipalities (SARM) has worked with Saskatchewan’s rural municipalities since 1905, bringing their voice to both the provincial and federal governments.
Association of Manitoba Municipalities
The Association of Manitoba Municipalities (AMM) was formed in 1999 from a merger of the Union of Manitoba Municipalities (established 1905) and the Manitoba Association of Urban Municipalities (created in 1949).
LAS Local Authority Services – AMO Business Services
Local Authority Services (LAS) is a not-for-profit organization formed by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) in 1992 to assist member organizations through cooperative procurement and a variety of training programs and services.
Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick
The Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) is a bilingual association established in 1994 representing 61 local governments and more than a third of the population of the province.
Federation of Prince Edward Island Municipalities
The Federation of Prince Edward Island Municipalities (FPEIM) was established in 1957 to represent municipalities in the province collectively. Originally formed with 12 municipalities, it has now grown to 41 members across the island.
Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities
The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities (NSFM) was established in 1906 and today represents the collective voice of all 49 municipalities in the province.
Municipalities Newfoundland & Labrador
Formed in 1951, Municipalities Newfoundland & Labrador (MNL) has grown to represent more than 97 percent of the 276 incorporated municipalities throughout the province.
Northwest Territories Association of Communities
Since 1966, the Northwest Territories Association of Communities (NWTAC) has provided information exchange and unified initiatives for all 33 of the territory’s communities.
gtechna + Canoe
Frequently Asked Questions
It depends! While the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) provides legislative direction across all Canadian provinces and territories, there are other regional trade agreements that may impact procurement laws depending on your jurisdiction, including:
- The Ontario-Quebec Trade and Cooperation Agreement (OQTCA) for Ontario and Quebec
- The New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWPTA) for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and British Columbia
Trade agreements—along with government directives and policies—generally require public sector purchasers to conduct open, competitive procurement processes. This requirement arises if the estimated value of the goods or services to be purchased exceeds certain value thresholds.
Once the value threshold is exceeded, the purchaser must purchase from a contractor who is successful in a competitive process (e.g. a request for proposals, request for quotation) that is open to the entire marketplace. That competitive process must meet the requirements of applicable trade treaties, which usually involves posting notices, disclosing relevant information, running a fair evaluation process, etc.
In order to ensure compliance for ourselves and our membership, we:
- Actively review our policies, practices, and process documents to continually improve them based on feedback. We have also engaged external experts to review our process documents to support trade agreement compliance.
- Only run open, competitive procurement processes. We do not engage in invitation-only or non-competitive contract awards (we leave that to our members to decide).
- Are transparent about who our members are. Each municipal association involved is able to provide a list of relevant members so that the marketplace is aware of who may purchase through awarded contracts.
- Ensure our processes account for distributor networks. A network of regional distributors can collectively bid on opportunities, with member organizations entering into contracts with the applicable distributor for their region. Suppliers are not permitted to charge higher pricing than was proposed to us, and must honor the terms of the agreement.
- Canoe is committed to ensuring all programs provide your organization with the best value available.