Buy Canadian won’t win you the federal job: foreign-owned firms qualify too

What’s happened.

MIXED · Manufacturing & Industrial · federal procurement

If you have been pricing federal bids on the assumption that being Canadian-owned gives you an edge, the federal Procurement Ombud just took that assumption away. On Oct. 29, 2026, Alexander Jeglic of the Office of the Procurement Ombud told the House of Commons government operations committee that a foreign-owned company can qualify as a Canadian supplier under the Buy Canadian policy, the federal rule meant to steer government purchases to Canadian businesses. As The Hub reported, Jeglic said the definition is “broader than one would hope” because Canada must stay inside its free trade commitments, and that foreign ownership “alone doesn’t invalidate” a supplier being treated as Canadian.

The test he laid out is about presence, not ownership: a place of business in Canada, being registered and filing taxes here, keeping a registered address, employing people or doing day-to-day business in Canada, and not sending most of the work to subcontractors outside the country. The example that drew the questions was a Canada Revenue Agency security contract worth roughly $11.9 million awarded to Universal Protection Service of Canada Corporation, the Canadian subsidiary of US-based Allied Universal, instead of the Commissionaires, which employs veterans. Conservative MP Richard Bragdon said reports showed the winning bid was only about 1% lower. Jeglic called the case troubling but said he could not say the rules were broken.

Two numbers matter for anyone bidding. The first is that 1% gap: price, not passport, decided an eight-figure contract. The second is the calendar. Jeglic’s office has taken more than a dozen cases on this definition since January, he has not yet reviewed a single Buy Canadian solicitation under his formal mandate, and his study will not be finished until spring 2027. Committee chair Kelly McCauley said he would ask the department for a brief on the data. Nothing about the definition changes before then.

What it means: If you are an Alberta fabricator, equipment maker, building-products supplier or service firm chasing federal contracts, stop building your bid around Canadian ownership. The Canadian arm of a US or offshore parent passes the same test you do, and a 1% price difference was enough to lose an $11.9 million award. Rework your next federal bid so it documents each of the five criteria in plain evidence and so your price can survive a line-by-line comparison, and assume nothing improves until the ombud reports in spring 2027.