Ontario Bid Brief, Issue 23

Tuesday, November 3, 2026 · 7:00 AM ET

Three of this week's four awards are files we wrote about months ago, and the results were worth the wait. The pit and mound job had two plan takers when we flagged it in Issue 15. It closed with 17, four firms bid, and the low bid still lost by $52,188. On the open side, the lead is a kitchen and bathroom renovation in a Peel housing building that just hit the board.

1. Kitchens and Bathrooms Renovation and Associated Works, Gran Columbia, 3058 Fifth Line W, Mississauga Region of Peel · 2026-527T · Project PL25-WP01 · closes Mon Nov 23, 12:00 PM ET · plan taker list not posted yet

Kitchen and bathroom renovations at Gran Columbia on Fifth Line West, plus associated works. The PL project code points to Peel's housing portfolio, so plan on tenants being in the building while you work. Nine documents are in the package.

Estimated value: $400K to $1.5M (estimate, depends on unit count)

Incumbent read: none in our data for this building. The useful number sits on Peel's roster for unoccupied unit turnover renovations, which closes Nov 4 with 63 plan takers. That is the bench of renovation GCs watching Peel housing work, and most of them will find this file.

Worth bidding if: you run kitchen and bath crews and have worked in occupied multi-unit buildings. Repeating the same layout unit after unit rewards a crew that can set a rhythm. Tenant notices and daily cleanup are where the margin leaks. You have three weeks.

2. Net Zero Renovations, Women's Residence, 674 Dundas Street West, Toronto City of Toronto · Doc5885770515 · RFT · closes Thu Nov 19 · Ward 11

A net zero renovation of an existing women's residence, issued by Corporate Real Estate Management on Oct 29. On an existing building, net zero usually means envelope upgrades and an electrified heating plant carried in one contract.

Estimated value: $2M to $5M (estimate, above our usual range)

Incumbent read: none in our data, and Toronto's listing does not publish a plan taker count. Bidders must be registered on SAP Ariba before they can submit.

Worth bidding if: you are a GC with residential or shelter renovation experience and a mechanical partner who has installed heat pumps in an occupied building. Specialists should be pricing to those GCs now. Three weeks from issue to close is short for a net zero package. This file ties straight into The Signal below.

3. Mainway Rink 1 Replacement, Burlington City of Burlington · ES-26-45 · closes Wed Nov 18, 2:00 PM ET · 12 plan takers

Replacement of Rink 1 at Mainway Arena. On an arena, rink replacement usually covers the concrete floor slab and the refrigeration piping embedded in it. Read the seven documents to confirm what this one includes before you price.

Estimated value: $1.5M to $3.5M (estimate)

Incumbent read: no prior rink award at Mainway in our data. Burlington tendered the dehumidification replacement at the same arena in September, so the building is already in a renewal cycle. For a sense of the bench, Mississauga's Tomken Twin Pad refrigeration plant drew four plan takers when we ran it in Issue 9. Ice work runs through a short list of firms.

Worth bidding if: you are an arena refrigeration contractor or a concrete GC with one lined up. Twelve plan takers is three times what Tomken drew, so expect a real contest. Owners schedule rink floor work around the ice season, so check the construction window before you commit crews.

4. EMS HVAC Upgrades, 139 Ontario Street, Niagara Region Niagara Region · 2026-T-123 · closes Fri Nov 13, 2:00 PM ET · 24 plan takers

HVAC upgrades at the Region's EMS building at 139 Ontario Street. Paramedic services run around the clock, so expect phased work in an occupied building.

Estimated value: $250K to $900K (estimate)

Incumbent read: none in our data. The last Niagara HVAC file we ran, Louth Street Transit in Issue 22, turned out to be a controls job once the specs were open. Check whether this one is equipment or controls before you commit an estimator.

Worth bidding if: you are a commercial HVAC contractor in Niagara or Hamilton with 24 hour facility experience. Twenty four plan takers is the biggest room in this week's open section, so price it tight or pass.

5. Grass Cutting and Maintenance Services, Mississauga City of Mississauga · PRC005564 · closes Tue Dec 1, 2:00 PM ET · 19 plan takers

Grass cutting and maintenance for the City of Mississauga. A December close points to next season's work.

Estimated value: $150K to $600K per year (estimate)

Incumbent read: the listing does not name the current holder. Mississauga's city-wide landscape maintenance contract drew 50 plan takers this spring, and the natural areas contract we ran in Issue 18 drew 14. This one sits at 19 with four weeks to go.

Worth bidding if: you run mowing crews in Peel and want next season booked before spring. Pricing it now gives you time to walk the sites properly. Mississauga is also moving to a new e-bidding system and its supplier notice runs to Dec 31, so confirm where your submission goes before you start.

Pit and Mound Restoration Construction, Mississauga City of Mississauga · PRC005578 · closed Sep 22 · 17 plan takers, 4 bids Winner: Rafat General Contractor Inc. (Caledon) · bid of $153,800

The low bid did not win. 2492442 Ontario Inc. of Uxbridge came in at $101,612, and the city awarded the job to the second number, $52,188 higher. The notice does not say why. When a low bid gets passed over on municipal work, it usually traces back to a compliance or qualification problem in the submission. When we ran this file in Issue 15, two firms had the documents. It closed with 17, and only four bid. Tri-Phase Group was high at $444,728, 4.4 times the low. Two restoration specialists, MLC Ecosystem Restoration and Ghent Landscape, pulled the documents and passed. That makes at least four low bids we have watched lose this year, after the Mississauga picnic shelters, the Oakville OTCC stairwell and the Oshawa settling tank roof.

Snow Removal Services for Stairs, Walkways and Trails, Oakville Town of Oakville · RFP-46-2026 · closed Aug 25 · 35 plan takers Winner: JTPM Group Inc. (Hamilton) · $90,604

We flagged this one in Issue 14's Signal while it was still open. It was a proposal call, so Oakville published the winner and value but not the losing numbers or how many firms submitted. The plan taker list is the story. Thirty five firms pulled it, including Halton crews Green Thumb, GroundsGuys of Oakville and Marquee Landscapes, which won a Durham bus stop winter contract in Issue 22. Paving outfits like Atlas and Egnatia pulled it too. A Hamilton firm took the work anyway. Stair and trail clearing leans on hand crews more than heavy equipment, which lets a smaller outfit from outside town compete.

Construction Management Services, Port Credit Arena Lifecycle Renewal and Decarbonization, Mississauga City of Mississauga · PRC005458 · closed Aug 4 · 12 plan takers, 7 submissions Winner: Percon Construction Inc. (Toronto) · $278,600

Issue 8's Signal said this tender was coming, because CS&P Architects had won the consulting work in May. It came, and Percon won the CM role. Seven firms submitted, but the city posted prices for only two. Percon was at $278,600 and Corebuild at $300,000, a 7% gap. On a proposal call, that usually means only those two cleared the technical score and the other five never had a price opened. Chart, Quad Pro, Rutherford, Alliance Verdi and BDA all fall in that group. Urbacon and Century Group pulled the documents and did not submit. That figure is the CM fee. The construction dollars sit in the trade packages, and on a CM job those usually run through the CM, so subs who want arena work should be talking to Percon.

[PULL NEEDED] On-Demand Fencing Repairs and Installations, Mississauga City of Mississauga · PRC005543 · closed Sep 17 · 31 plan takers Paste the Awarded, Bids Submitted and Plan Takers tabs and this entry gets written before the send.

Look at the decarbonization files on the boards this week. Toronto has a net zero renovation of a women's residence on Dundas West. Peel's Sheridan Villa decarbonization upgrade is still open, now with seven addenda and 38 plan takers. Toronto is designing a flat roof replacement at the R.C. Harris plant with solar PV built into the same assignment. And Mississauga just put a construction manager in charge of the Port Credit Arena lifecycle renewal and decarbonization.

A few years ago most of that work would have come out as separate jobs, a roof one year and a boiler the next, each one sized for a specialist to bid as prime. A net zero target changes the math. The envelope and the mechanical system have to be designed together because one sets the size of the other, so owners tender them together. The package gets bigger and the bonding requirement rises with it. The prime ends up being a GC or a CM with a mechanical partner.

That moves most specialists one step down the chain. The roofer and the controls shop who used to bid the city directly now price to whoever primes. Port Credit shows how far that goes. Seven firms submitted on the CM role, only two had prices posted, and the trade work on that arena will now run through Percon.

For a specialist, the fix starts with sales. The plan taker list on a decarbonization file is your customer list. Call the GCs on it in the first week, while they are still building their sub lists, and you get carried in their number. Wait for a public sub tender and you will often find there never was one.

For a GC, the gate is your mechanical bench. Owners scoring these proposals want a team that has electrified an occupied building before. Line that partner up before the next file posts. Three weeks from issue to close, which is what 674 Dundas gave bidders, is not enough time to find one.

Forward this to the estimator on your team who would want the Gran Columbia file, or hit reply and tell me which job you are chasing.