Set-Aside Under PSIB (Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business)

A set-aside under PSIB is a federal procurement that is restricted to qualified Indigenous businesses. PSIB stands for the Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business. CanadaBuys states that requirements designated as set aside under PSIB are restricted to qualified Indigenous businesses.

The term is used in Canadian federal procurement. It appears in solicitation notices, supply arrangements, standing offers and individual contracts. When a notice is marked as a PSIB set-aside, businesses that do not qualify as Indigenous businesses cannot compete for the work, except under the conditional form described below.

How a PSIB set-aside restricts competition

In an ordinary open tender, any supplier that meets the mandatory requirements can bid. In a PSIB set-aside, the contracting authority limits the competition to qualified Indigenous businesses from the start. The restriction is part of the solicitation itself, so eligibility is decided before bids are evaluated.

Bidders are typically asked to certify that they qualify as an Indigenous business under PSIB and that they will comply with PSIB requirements. Some solicitations also ask for a certification or appendix to be submitted with the bid, as in this amended solicitation.

Conditional set-asides under PSIB

A conditional set-aside works differently. The procurement is first open to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous businesses. It becomes restricted to Indigenous businesses if at least two compliant bids are received from qualifying Indigenous businesses. In that case the contracting authority may limit evaluation to those Indigenous bidders and exclude the non-Indigenous bids.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has used this approach in requests for proposals, such as solicitation 2024-00132. A 2025 request for proposal also describes the conditional mechanism. The RCMP used a conditional PSIB set-aside for installation services at its Depot Division in Regina, as shown in this award notice.

Departments and purchases that use PSIB set-asides

• Public Services and Procurement Canada runs PSIB set-asides through standing offers and supply arrangements.
• Fisheries and Oceans Canada used a PSIB set-aside for office seating bought through a PWGSC supply arrangement, as shown in this tender notice.
• Shared Services Canada has published PSIB set-asides, including a goods requirement for Belkin products or equivalent, on the CanadaBuys tender opportunities list.
• Indigenous Services Canada has issued procurements expressly set aside for Indigenous business under PSIB, such as this request for proposal.

PSIB set-asides cover goods, construction or installation services, and professional or informatics services. Examples include office furniture, seating, sod installation and task-based informatics professional services.

Standing offers and supply arrangements under PSIB

CanadaBuys directs buyers to consider a PSIB-specific standing-offer or supply-arrangement stream so that clients can run procurements under PSIB when appropriate. The guidance is in the determine sourcing strategy section of the buyer's guide.

In practice, a requirement may be solicited only among PSIB supply-arrangement holders. One CanadaBuys notice states that only pre-qualified suppliers holding the supply arrangement were eligible to bid. A supplier that is an Indigenous business but holds no arrangement can therefore be shut out of that particular procurement.

What a PSIB set-aside means for a supplier

Check the notice for the words "set aside" or "conditional set-aside" before you decide to bid. If the procurement is a full set-aside, only qualified Indigenous businesses can compete. If it is conditional, non-Indigenous suppliers can bid, but their bids may be excluded once two compliant Indigenous bids are received.

Read the certification requirements and have any Indigenous-business certification or appendix ready with your bid. Confirm whether the solicitation requires a standing offer or supply arrangement, and whether you hold it. Indigenous suppliers can monitor CanadaBuys for these notices and consider joining the relevant PSIB streams.