Government & Public Sector Supplier Lists

The to-do list, in priority order — highest value to Code to Cloud first, not easiest first.

The play

Be the listed, invitable supplier Alberta’s public buyers can just hire Airdrie first.

Registration is free and fast; the value is in doing it in the right order. Municipal work sits below the trade-agreement thresholds where a buyer can invite us directly — so the fastest revenue and the first reference both come from the bottom of the stack, not the top.

Why this order

There is no single list

It's a stack: free registrations (be visible) → prequalification vehicles (standing offers, source lists — the real “preferred supplier” lists) → contract history (what unlocks the big vehicles). You climb it; you don't join it.

Our money is under the thresholds

Below NWPTA $75,000 (Alberta goods/services) and CFTA $139,000 (municipalities, 2026-27), buyers may invite quotes or direct-award. Under those numbers, being registered, licensed and known beats bidding.

Past performance is the currency

The big federal vehicles (TBIPS/SBIPS) want ~$1.5M of in-category billings over 3 years. Every municipal win and every subcontract to a prime is deposit toward that — which is why they rank above the federal paperwork.

Wave 1 — start here

This week2 of 5 done

All free. About 4 hours total, and it puts Code to Cloud in front of every Alberta public buyer that matters to us.

#	Action	Value	Effort
	Register on Alberta Purchasing Connection (APC)Done Jul 25, 2026 One free account covers the Government of Alberta and most Alberta municipalities, school divisions, health and post-secondary. Highest coverage-per-minute of anything on this page. Registered as Code To Cloud Inc. o/a Code To Cloud — APC Business ID 134-538. purchasing.alberta.ca	high	20 min
02	City of Airdrie — do both halves Email accounts.payable@airdrie.ca for the new-vendor form (this is what gets us invited to under-threshold quotes), and register free on MERX, mentioning you're a City of Airdrie vendor for the free access. Home turf — this is the single warmest buyer we have. merx.com/cityofairdrie	high	30 min
03	Confirm the Airdrie business licence is current Mandatory to do business in Airdrie, and it gates everything above. Add a Calgary licence when we bid there.	high	15 min
04	Write the capability statement (1–2 page PDF) Legal name, BN/GST 784848020RT0001, commodity codes, three differentiators, three references, one contact. Every public buyer and every prime asks for this — it's the artifact the rest of the plan hands out. Lead with the BDC Advisory Services seat: independent vetting by a federal Crown corporation is the strongest third-party credential we have.	high	2 hrs
	Set up APC notifications — saved searches, not the profileDone Jul 25, 2026 APC alerts come from SAVED SEARCHES, not from the business profile: build a filter set, save it, sign up for New Posting Notifications (a daily digest). Run three — one by UNSPSC code (81111500/600/700/800, 81112000, 81112100, 81112200; 81112103 is web design, 81111801 is cyber security), one by keyword (website, cloud, artificial intelligence, cyber security — catches the badly-coded postings, and AI has no code of its own), and one by region (Airdrie, Rocky View, Crossfield…). On any posting, Express Interest to get its addenda. GSIN codes come later with the federal registration.	high	30 min

Wave 2 — make us bid-ready

Weeks 2–40 of 7 done

Registration makes us visible; this wave makes us submittable. Most bids are lost on a missing certificate, not on price.

#	Action	Value	Effort
06	Coffee with Airdrie Economic Development (Tara, Jessica) Ask who actually buys web/IT/AI inside the city and how under-threshold purchases get made. One conversation beats any portal — and the relationship already exists.	high	1 coffee
07	Insurance certificates — CGL $2–5M, E&O, cyber Municipal RFPs routinely require all three, named with the city as additional insured, submitted with the bid — not at award. Get quotes now so a deadline never costs us a bid.	high	Costs money
08	Three written client references PaSu Farm, Ester Brenner Professional Corporation, Trinity Hills Eyecare. Past performance is scored, and private-sector references count.	high	1 hr
09	Create an SAP Business Network account One account covers the City of Calgary (which moved off MERX to Ariba in 2022) and federal supplier registration. City of Calgary — become a supplier	medium	30 min
10	CanadaBuys account + Procurement Business Number (PBN) The old SRI system retired on July 3, 2026 — registration now runs through SAP Business Network. An issued PBN is the proof the federal registration actually completed. canadabuys.canada.ca	medium	45 min
11	WCB Alberta clearance or exemption letter Bid packages ask for it by name. A directors-only corporation can file an exemption — get the letter either way.	medium	30 min
12	Book the free Procurement Assistance Canada advisor 1-800-811-1148 or SAC-PAC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca. A free human whose job is walking small businesses through their first federal bid. Ask for the Prairie region contact. Get assistance with procurement	medium	20 min

Wave 3 — get on the board

Months 2–30 of 6 done

Now go earn the contract history. The first public-sector reference is worth more than the margin on it.

#	Action	Value	Effort
13	Two prime-contractor conversations Long View, Compugen, Softchoice/CDW, CGI already hold the vehicles and sub out niche AI/cloud work. A specialist sub is easy for them to say yes to — and it builds exactly the billing history the big vehicles demand.	high	2 calls
14	Bid one under-threshold municipal opportunity The objective is the first public-sector reference on the board, not the margin. Everything above exists to make this bid takeable in an hour.	high	1 bid
15	School divisions and small public bodies Rocky View Schools, Golden Hills, library boards, FCSS, ag societies. Small budgets, comfortably under threshold, almost nobody courts them — and they buy exactly what we sell.	high	2 hrs
16	Email purchasing/finance across the rest of the service area Rocky View County, Chestermere, Crossfield, Irricana, Carstairs, Olds, Drumheller. Most post to APC, but several keep their own informal vendor lists — one email each gets us on them.	medium	2 hrs
17	Microsoft Partner / Cloudflare partner status The other meaning of “preferred partner” — vendor-side directories that primes and public buyers search. Route the Cloudflare one through the employment COI disclosure first.	medium	—
18	Attend a Government of Alberta quarterly supplier session Free. Teaches how they actually evaluate, and puts us in the room with buyers before a solicitation exists.	medium	2 hrs

Watch list — opportunistic, high ceiling

These can’t be forced — they open on someone else’s schedule, or need history we don’t have yet. Watch them; don’t chase them.

19Best-fit federal vehicle

PSPC AI Source List — Band 1 (up to $1M)

A prequalified list for AI services (grown from ~74 to ~145 suppliers), banded by ceiling: Band 1 $1M, Band 2 $4M, Band 3 $37.5M. Qualification is judged on AI ethics, implementation capability and access to talent — which is precisely our positioning and Kevin's profile, and the BDC Advisory Services seat is third-party evidence of exactly that. Band 1 is genuinely attainable. Monitor CanadaBuys for the next qualification window and pre-write the response.

Official page

20How you get on a GoA list

APC prequalification (RFSQ) notices

Alberta advertises a Prequalification Request on APC; qualifying puts you on a Standing Offer Source List / Master Agreement, and Statements of Work then go only to that list. Their digital side has prequalified by resource role. Miss the window and you wait for the refresh — so set APC alerts specifically for prequalification notices in IT/digital.

Official page

212–4 year goal

ProServices / TBIPS / SBIPS

The mandatory federal professional-services vehicles. Qualification expects roughly $1.5M in related billings over three years, so this is not a first move — but subcontracting to a holder (#13) builds exactly the history the application needs.

Official page

22Only when a bid requires it

Contract Security Program (DOS)

Organization screening can't be obtained pre-emptively — it needs a sponsoring solicitation or contract. Know it exists so a security-flagged solicitation isn't a surprise; pursue it when a real bid demands it.

Official page

Before the first bid: the COI

Public-sector bidding while employed by a vendor needs a written disclosure and a stated vendor-neutrality position — especially on anything CDN, security or cloud shaped. Clear it through Cloudflare’s conflict-of-interest process before submitting, not after. It’s a paperwork step, not a blocker.

“Preferred partner” means two things

In procurement it means a prequalified / standing-offer vendor. In vendor land it means Microsoft or Cloudflare partner status. Both help, and the second is often the faster route into the first — primes subcontract to partners, and subcontracts build the history the procurement lists ask for.

Sources