

As part of its commitment to transparent reporting, Waterfront Toronto posts publicly all pre-qualifications and contracts with a value over $50,000. These contracts, which were awarded in accordance with Waterfront Toronto's procurement policy, are listed below. All contracts were competitively sourced, unless labeled otherwise.
To ensure that the waterfront projects deliver excellence in design and set new standards for architecture and public space Waterfront Toronto holds international design competitions and/or rigorous Request for Proposals (RFP) processes to select design partners.
Waterfront Toronto has a best in class procurement policy which guides purchasing decisions.
Since inception, our funding agreements with our government partners have prohibited us from sole sourcing any contract more than $75,000. Since 2006 we have developed even more rigorous policies than those required by governments to limit sole sourcing.
Waterfront Toronto uses ACAN (Advanced Contract Award Notification), a competitive procurement process, when it believes, after conducting due diligence, that only one Vendor is capable of providing certain specialized goods or services. The ACAN is publicly posted across Canada on MERX, during which time
Waterfront Toronto is open to accepting and discussing challenges from other Vendors. Only if no valid challenges are received does Waterfront Toronto proceed to award a contract to the identified Vendor.
Price is only one of several criteria according to which Waterfront Toronto awards its contracts. In the case of RFPs, our evaluation process takes into consideration a mix of financial and technical criteria, such as a firm’s project experience, key personnel and methodology/approach. Since these technical factors are considered along with price, Waterfront Toronto’s policy is not to release the monetary values of its contracts. For all RFPs over $50,000 (before HST), Waterfront Toronto uses the following system to disclose the range of the value of its contracts:

In the case of posting Tenders over $50,000 before HST (proposals where price is the only criterion), Waterfront Toronto publishes the price. In procuring all our projects, our aim is to attract best overall value.
For its large construction projects, Waterfront Toronto uses a rigorous, two-stage public procurement process to select a firm to provide construction management services. That firm is responsible for procuring the necessary trades to deliver the project.
The construction manager firm is bound by Waterfront Toronto procurement policies, is overseen by Waterfront Toronto and awards contracts on Waterfront Toronto’s behalf.
Eastern Construction is the firm providing construction management services for East Bayfront, West Don Lands, and Queens Quay Revitalization; EllisDon is the firm providing construction management services for the York Quay revitalization project and George Brown College, and PCL is the firm providing construction management services for Bayside Development.
Waterfront Toronto is regularly audited by the federal government. Additionally, a Value for Money audit was conducted in June 2007 concluding that value for money was being provided by Waterfront Toronto. A recently completed federal procurement audit (December 2010) found that Waterfront Toronto complies with all federal and Waterfront Toronto's own internal procurement policies. In 2009, the City noted that Waterfront Toronto's procurement policies meet or exceed the City's own disclosure policies.
To ensure that the waterfront projects deliver excellence in design, architecture and public space Waterfront Toronto holds international design competitions and/or rigorous Request for Proposals processes to select design partners.
As a result of these competitions and process, several world renowned firms have been selected as "master designers" for waterfront precincts. In addition to the original design concept, the design partners are responsible for working with Waterfront Toronto on the ongoing planning and design phases of the project including any required work on environmental assessments.
Our design partner for the central waterfront including East Bayfront and Queens Quay is West 8 + DTAH, who won the Central Waterfront Innovative Design Competition in 2006. Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates, who won the Lower Don Lands Design Competition in 2007, is our design partner for the Lower Don Lands. The Planning Partnership has been the design partner for the public realm infrastructure in the West Don Lands since winning a Request for Proposals process in 2007.