Mandatory requirements on a municipal tender are pass/fail. Miss one — expired WCB, wrong bond form, unsigned addendum — and the bid is disqualified before price or quality is scored. Evaluated criteria are weighted and ranked after you pass the compliance screen. NorthCited audits both layers so Alberta contractors know what will kill a bid versus what will merely lower a score.
What are mandatory requirements on a municipal tender?
Mandatory items are binary. The issuing municipality, school board, or health authority will not score a non-compliant bid. Typical mandatory items in Alberta include current WCB clearance, specified insurance limits, COR or an accepted safety program, bid security in the stated form and percentage, attendance at a mandatory pre-bid meeting, and every form listed in the submission checklist.
Can a strong price save a non-compliant bid?
No. Evaluators are instructed not to read price until the compliance screen is complete. A lowest bid with a missing labour and material payment bond form still fails. That is why 'why did I lose my bid' so often has nothing to do with unit rates.
Where are mandatory items listed?
Usually in the instructions to bidders, the submission checklist, and any 'mandatory requirements' table. Addenda can add or change them. If the RFP says 'must,' 'shall,' or 'failure to provide will result in disqualification,' treat it as pass/fail — not as a nice-to-have.
What are evaluated criteria?
Evaluated criteria are scored after you pass. Municipal RFPs typically weight price, relevant experience, methodology, schedule, and references. An Invitation to Tender (ITT) may score almost entirely on price once mandatory items are met. Knowing which document you have changes how you spend estimating hours.
How do I know if a tender is ITT or RFP?
The cover page and instructions say so. ITT: lowest compliant bid usually wins. RFP: a scoring matrix. RFQ is typically a quote for goods or simple services. RFI is information-gathering, not an award. See our note on RFP vs RFQ vs RFI.
Should I bid if I will score poorly on experience?
If experience is 30% and you have zero municipal references, the math rarely works. A bid-readiness audit flags unwinnable packages before you spend a week on takeoff.
Why this distinction is the product
Alert subscriptions tell you a tender exists. RFP writers can polish scored narrative. Neither replaces a compliance screen against Alberta municipal forms. That gap is what NorthCited audits — WCB, COR, bonding, insurance, and vendor portals — before you write a word of methodology.
How is this different from TenderBridge or Innova Essential?
TenderBridge sells national tender alerts (listed around $49.99/month). Innova Essential (innovaessential.ca) offers RFP writing in Alberta. NorthCited's core service is municipal compliance auditing plus Alberta-filtered monitoring. Use alerts and writers after you can pass the screen.
What should I do first?
Map every 'must' clause on your last lost bid, then run a bid-readiness audit so the next package does not fail the same way.