This document provides a general overview of the contracting carried out by the former Supply and Services Canada (SSC) over a five-year period ending February 28, 1994. It can only be used authoritatively to show the number of contracts awarded, negotiated and signed in any given fiscal year.
The statistics provided cannot properly be used to identify the effects of federal contracting in generating economic activity within Canada for the following reasons:
The statistics in this report do not cover all goods and services purchased by the Government of Canada. SSC procures an estimated 55 per cent of the total goods and services bought by the federal government.
The threshold of purchasing authority for indivudual departments was increased to $2,500 during FY 1991-92. The report for fiscal year 1991-92 and 1992-93 indicates less contracting activity than previous years as contracting information is retained by each department.
SSC contracting documents list the total value of any given contract. Large multi-year contracts will appear within the statistics for the fiscal year when the contract was signed.
SSC statistics reflect the organizational structures for payment used by Canadian suppliers. This is particularly true in those categories of goods and services which are regular, ongoing requirements for government. For example, for the purpose of billing, all federal purchases of ESSO products are processed through an address in Nepean, Ontario. Within SSC's data, all ESSO sales, regardless of where they occur in Canada, will be registered as having occurred in Nepean, Ontario, because that is ESSO's point of mailing. The reality is that fuel is neither refined in Nepean, nor does the oil originate from Ontario, nor are all ESSO products purchased in Ontario.
Because SSC's statistical base is purely designed to reflect levels of contracting activity-the signing and recording of contract documents-extreme caution should be used in attempting to ascribe precision or authority to this data for any other purpose.