ONTARIO BID BRIEF Issue 22

Three roofing results came in this week from three different owners, and the same names kept turning up on every one of them. That pattern is the Signal, and it matters for anyone looking at the River Oaks roof that leads this issue. Toronto has two open files below, one of them a new park that any contractor can bid. The fencing award near the bottom is the one I had to count twice.

1. River Oaks Community Centre Low Slope Roof Replacement, Oakville Town of Oakville · RFT-89-2026 · closes Tue Nov 10, 2:00 PM ET · 10 plan takers

Oakville is replacing the low slope roof at River Oaks Community Centre. It's the second job we've covered at this building, after the north parking lot earlier this year.

Estimated value: $250K to $700K (estimate, confirm the roof area in the drawings)

Incumbent read: Stonecast Landscapes of Stoney Creek won the River Oaks parking lot in Issue 15 at $308,655, but that was sitework. The closer comp is Oakville's Town Hall low slope roof, which closed in July (full results below). Eleven firms pulled that job and nine bid. Nine of the ten firms on the River Oaks list also pulled Town Hall, and Proteck Roofing is the only new name. Eileen Roofing took Town Hall by 31 percent, with Nortex second.

Worth bidding if: you install commercial low slope systems and can price against a group that already knows this owner. Ten plan takers with two weeks of runway is a room you can mostly name today. The Signal below shows how that room has been splitting.

2. Accessibility Upgrades to Washrooms and a Staircase, Glen Abbey Community Centre, Oakville Town of Oakville · RFQ-32-2026 · closes Tue Nov 10, 2:00 PM ET · 42 plan takers

Oakville wants accessibility upgrades to washrooms and a staircase at Glen Abbey Community Centre. It's an RFQ, which points to a smaller dollar value, and three documents are posted.

Estimated value: $100K to $400K (estimate)

Incumbent read: our archive has no prior award at Glen Abbey. The nearest Oakville comp is the OTCC parking garage stairwell repair from Issue 14. Gablie Construction won it at $80,900 after Trinity Services' $72,000 low bid was passed over. Read the compliance requirements in this RFQ before you price.

Worth bidding if: you're a small GC or renovation contractor who can carry washroom fit-out along with stair and railing work inside an open community centre. Forty-two plan takers is the biggest room on the board this week, so expect the price to get squeezed. Oakville rooms do thin out between download and submission. Only 13 of 36 bid the River Oaks parking lot.

3. Construction of New Park at 160 McAllister Road, Toronto City of Toronto · Doc5908344515 · RFT · closes Thu Nov 19, 12:00 PM ET · plan takers not published

A new park in Ward 6 York Centre. The scope is full sitework: concrete and asphalt paving, line painting, play and fitness equipment, pickleball court equipment, mulch surfacing, site furnishings, tree planting and transplanting, grading, drainage and site electrical.

Estimated value: $800K to $2.5M (estimate, a full park build with courts and play areas)

Incumbent read: Toronto doesn't publish plan takers or bid results, so there's no field read on this one. What we do know is that it's open to any bidder. The Fountainhead Park job we referenced last issue was limited to a prequalified Toronto list and went to Joe Pace and Sons at $8.6M. McAllister has no such limit. You do need to be fully registered on SAP Ariba before you can submit.

Worth bidding if: you're a landscape construction or sitework contractor who can self-perform the hardscape and sub out the play equipment and electrical. The optional site meeting is Wed Nov 4 at 10 AM at the corner of McAllister Road and Faywood Blvd, and it's the only site visit the City is offering. If you aren't set up on Ariba, start that this week.

4. Louth Street Transit HVAC Upgrades, St. Catharines Niagara Region · 2026-RFP-124 · closes Tue Nov 24, 2:00 PM ET · 6 plan takers

Read past the title. This is a building automation job at the Niagara Region Transit building at 2012 First Street Louth, an 88,985 sq ft facility built in 1990 with additions in 2016 and 2023. The winner replaces ten Carrier Open XP controllers with open BACnet controllers, adds a JACE 9000 and connects the building to the Region's BAS supervisor. The nine gas-fired make-up air units, the exhaust fans, the gas detection, two Carrier rooftop units, an ERV and two Trane heat pump units all get tied into the new system. The final sequence of operation has to be stamped by a professional engineer.

Estimated value: $100K to $300K (estimate, mostly controls hardware, programming and graphics)

Incumbent read: the RFP says the current programming is inaccessible to the building operations team, so the Region is replacing the controllers outright. The six plan takers are mechanical contractors plus a facilities manager. B&B Mechanical, which won the Burlington Central Library roof and RTU job in Issue 16 at $4.2M, is on the list with Accu-Temp, Mito, Sabcon, Superior Boiler and BGIS. No dedicated controls integrator has pulled it yet.

Worth bidding if: you're a controls integrator who works on the Niagara platform that runs the JACE and can get a P.Eng to stamp the sequences. The mechanical firms on the list will likely need a controls partner, so integrators should be calling them. Questions close Mon Nov 9 at noon, and the longest runway on the board this week is on this file.

5. Electrical Systems Maintenance and Repair, City of Toronto Divisions and Sites City of Toronto · Doc5941841356 · nRFP · closes Mon Nov 23 · plan takers not published

A negotiated RFP from Corporate Real Estate Management covering electrical maintenance and repair across City divisions and sites. On a negotiated RFP the City can negotiate with the top proponents after scoring, so price is only part of the decision.

Estimated value: $2M to $6M over the term (estimate, city-wide term work, confirm the term length in the documents)

Incumbent read: none in our data. The same division also has a building automation maintenance and repair RFQ on the board right now, which suggests it is working through its building service contracts this fall.

Worth bidding if: you run a commercial electrical service operation with enough crews and on-call depth to cover a city this size. This is one of two files this week that likely runs over $2M. Registration on SAP Ariba applies here too.

Low Slope Roof Replacement, Oakville Town Hall Town of Oakville · RFT-68-2026 · closed Fri Jul 31 · 11 plan takers, 9 bids Winner: Eileen Roofing Inc. (Toronto) · bid $388,750

Eileen won by $121,250. Nortex Roofing was second at $510,000, 31 percent higher. Third through fifth were separated by $3,705: George Roque Roofing at $535,000, Solar Roofing at $537,700 and Flynn Canada at $538,705. Masi Group was high at $1,006,400, 2.6 times the winner. Nine of 11 plan takers bid, an 82 percent conversion. The award notice doesn't list a contract value, so the figure above is Eileen's bid. Eileen also won Durham's Oshawa settling tank roof in Issue 20.

Roof System Replacement, Rapelje Lodge Long Term Care Home Niagara Region · 2026-T-108 · closed Tue Sep 15 · 23 plan takers, 7 bids Winner: George Roque Roofing Corp. (Hamilton) · $571,000

A Hamilton roofer took a Niagara long term care roof by $36,550. Nortex was second again at $607,550, 6.4 percent back, and Always Roofing was third at $609,750. Flynn Canada's Stoney Creek office was high at $678,640, only 1.19 times the winner, so the whole field fit inside 19 percent. That's a tight room for roofing. Eileen, which won Oakville by 31 percent, finished sixth here at $671,500. Seven of 23 plan takers bid, and two of those 23 were ConstructConnect, the plan room service.

Winter Maintenance, Durham Region Transit Bus Stops Region of Durham · T-285A series · closed Mon Sep 14 · 3 plan takers, 3 bids Winner: Marquee Landscapes Ltd. (Burlington) · $676,826.29

We ran these open in Issue 13 and called them the thinnest room on any board that week. Durham split the bus stops into two contracts by area, and all three plan takers bid this one. Marquee won by $99,849 over 2842793 Ontario Inc. of Peterborough at $776,674.80. RTJ Property Services of Oshawa, the only Durham firm in the room, priced the same contract at $2,324,273, 3.4 times the winner. Marquee keeps turning up in this archive. It finished 13.1 percent back on Durham's Ajax and Pickering winter maintenance table in Issue 18, then won Oakville's loose leaf collection at $745,960 in Issue 19. A Burlington firm is winning Durham snow work.

On-Demand Fencing Repairs and Installations, Mississauga City of Mississauga · PRC005543 · closed Thu Sep 17 · 31 plan takers, 2 bids Winner: Mr. Fencee Inc. (Toronto) · value not published

Thirty-one firms pulled this and two bid. That's a 6 percent conversion, one of the lowest we've recorded. GTC Canada was the only other bidder. Mississauga didn't post amounts, so there's no spread, but the list of firms that walked away is worth reading. Three fence specialists pulled the documents and passed: Powell Fence, Burlington Fence and New Fence. So did three firms from our archive. SQM Janitorial won Mississauga's picnic shelter restoration in Issue 11, Trinity Services won Peel's parking garage rehab in Issue 12, and Aqua Tech won Durham's bus stop concrete in Issue 16. On-demand work has no fixed scope, so bidders commit to rates without knowing the volume. That is a common reason a room this big goes this quiet.

We now have full bid results on three low slope roof jobs from three owners. Oakville tendered its Town Hall roof in July. Niagara Region tendered the Rapelje Lodge roof in September. Durham tendered the Oshawa water supply plant settling tank roof in August, which we covered in Issue 20.

Three firms bid all of them. Eileen Roofing won Oakville by 31 percent, finished sixth in Niagara and won Durham. Nortex Roofing finished second, second and fifth. Always Roofing was sixth in Oakville and third in Niagara, and it was the low bid in Durham before the award went to the third lowest number. Five firms bid both Oakville and Niagara, and five bid both Oakville and Durham.

So the room for a mid-size municipal roof in this region is small, and it repeats. What changes from job to job is the order. The same firm can be 31 percent under the field on one roof and sixth on the next, which points to appetite and backlog more than cost. A roofer with a full fall prices high or passes. A roofer with a gap in its schedule prices to win.

There are two ways to use this.

If you're one of these firms, your competitors' recent numbers are public. Track who just won. A firm coming off a big win may have less room for the next one, and a firm that keeps finishing just behind is already pricing close.

If you're a GC carrying roofing as a sub, or a roofer outside this group, you know who you'll be up against before you open the file. Most of your competitors don't use that.

River Oaks is the live test. Ten firms pulled it. Nine pulled Town Hall as well, and eight of the ten have bid at least one of these three jobs. Eileen, Nortex and Always are all on the list again. It closes Nov 10, and we'll publish the results when Oakville posts them.

If you know a roofer pricing River Oaks or a landscaper eyeing McAllister, forward this to them and hit reply to tell me which file you're working on.