Most bid call documents include mandatory requirements, which all submitted bids must satisfy. Any bid that fails to meet even a single mandatory requirement would ordinarily be deemed non-compliant.

Only the criteria that were published in the bid call document may be relied on to evaluate the bids that are submitted, which means that the evaluation criteria must be developed before the release of the bid call document. The bid call document must be transparent, and the evaluation criteria applied evenly with respect to the assessment of all compliant bid submissions.

A public agency may make adjustments to the performance criteria after selecting a preferred bidder; however, the right to make such adjustments must itself be reserved in the bid call document.

Where a public body undertakes procurement by way of a tender, there is generally no opportunity for bidders to negotiate with the public body to change the specifications. Tenders typically involve very clearly stated specifications and often the lowest-priced responsive tender is accepted without further negotiations. Similarly, in the context of a tender, a bidder may submit its own specifications or standard terms of business; however, to the extent that such specifications or terms of business do not align with mandatory requirements of the tender documentation, the bidder's submission will be declared non-compliant.

Where a public body undertakes procurement by way of a non-binding RFP, the public body generally expects to negotiate with one or more bidders about certain aspects of the bid documentation. RFPs are often used when the specifications for a project are not particularly clear, so bidders are invited to propose a solution to a problem, requirement or objective. Bidder selection, as part of an RFP process, is thus based on a broader range of criteria, e.g. the effectiveness of the proposed solution, rather than on price alone as is more typical in the tender process.

The protection of small and medium enterprises ("SMEs") is not addressed in federal or provincial government procurement legislation. However, the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises ("OSME") within PWGSC advocates on behalf of SMEs and encourages their participation in federal government procurement. The OSME assists SMEs by raising awareness of opportunities and by providing information services.