May 19 COVID-19 Update

City Of Winnipeg Changes To Contract Award Process

In reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic, and effective immediately, the City of Winnipeg has informed us its changing its process for awarding contracts. The city will be moving away from hard copy contract document packages to an electronic system.

The City of Winnipeg will now be providing a link and password to contractors in the award letter, allowing them to download the contract documents for a period of 10 days. 

Contractors can expect to see a change in tenders and RFPs to accommodate this new practice. Where the tender has closed and the award letter still needs to be sent and for contractors who have been awarded contracts and have not yet received hard copy contract documents for execution, there will be a direct communication providing them with notice of the change and the link and password to download the contract documents, and asking for their concurrence on the change.

In the same vein, some construction documents contained a provision for the City to furnish documents to the Contractor. This will also be done electronically, and accordingly the provision in the Tender will be modified to read “Upon award of Contract, the Contractor will be provided with ‘issued for construction’ Contract Documents electronically, including Drawings in PDF format only.”

Advocating Over The Airwaves

If you’ve been listening to the radio since yesterday, you may have heard a joint ad from the Winnipeg Construction Association, Manitoba Heavy Construction Association and Merit Contractors Association advocating the provincial government to increase infrastructure investment to help us pull the economy up after the COVID-19 pandemic.

You can listen to the radio ad here, and read our full position on the issue here.

B2B Manitoba

Is your business looking for Personal Protective Equipment to keep working safely? The province has partnered with several local organizations to create B2B Manitoba, an online marketplace for businesses to buy and sell non-medical PPE.

Click here to see what’s available.

Signage To Promote Physical Distancing

As we move towards our new normal and offices around the province begin to re-open, you may find yourself in need of signage to encourage employees and visitors to keep their distance.

WCA Member Signex Manufacturing Inc. has a number of solutions that may be appropriate for your workplace. Click here to check out what they have available.