Statement of Requirement (SOR)

In Canadian federal procurement, a Statement of Requirement (SOR) is the document that describes the goods, services, products, outcomes, specifications, deliverables and other requirements a supplier must meet. It is the requirement that bids are prepared against and evaluated against, and it is the requirement the resulting contractor must perform.

Federal buyers also use the related term Statement of Work (SOW), mainly for service requirements. In solicitations posted on CanadaBuys, the SOR commonly appears as an annex titled Annex A – Statement of Requirement, set alongside the solicitation instructions and the resulting-contract clauses. Bidders should treat it as the core of the bid document.

Where the SOR sits in a federal bid solicitation

A federal solicitation usually has several parts: instructions to bidders, evaluation material, and the clauses that will form the contract. The SOR is the part that says what is actually being bought. A Department of National Defence (DND) bid solicitation, for example, has a Statement of Requirement section that points bidders to the detailed requirement in the line-item details or in Annex A. Its resulting-contract clauses then state that the contractor must provide the items detailed in that annex. The DND bid solicitation shows this structure.

SOR and SOW: how the two terms relate

The Government of Canada uses both terms. The SOR describes the full requirement, whether the buyer is acquiring goods, services or a mix of both. The SOW is the term used when the requirement is a service. CanadaBuys buyer guidance describes the SOW as identifying requirements, deliverables, schedules, tasks and responsibilities clearly enough for offerors to submit competitive and compliant offers. The guidance is on the CanadaBuys page on reviewing the statement of work.

What buyers must do before issuing a requirement

The same CanadaBuys guidance says a buyer must ensure requirements are clearly defined before soliciting offers and awarding a contract. A buyer must review the SOW before either step. A clear requirement protects both sides, because bidders can price and propose against a defined scope and evaluators can assess bids against the same scope.

Accessibility is one area where the document does real work. Canada's accessibility procurement guidance says that developing a clear SOW or SOR helps define how end users interact with a good and what barriers they may experience. It also says accessibility requirements can be written into the SOW or SOR as enforceable procurement requirements and evaluation criteria. See the accessibility procurement checklist annex.

Examples across federal departments

• RCMP: a request for proposal for remotely piloted aircraft systems states that the contractor must provide the items described in the Statement of Requirement at Annex A. Read the RCMP solicitation.
• National Research Council of Canada: a solicitation for articulated robots sets out a requirement to supply two robots and places the detail in Annex A. Read the NRC solicitation.
• PSPC: a solicitation for brake-pad replacement on the Clearwater Towing Tank arresting gear identifies Annex A as the Statement of Requirement and states that the bidder must provide the items detailed there. Read the PSPC solicitation.

What the SOR means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Read the entire SOR before deciding to bid. It sets the goods or services you must provide, and your bid must demonstrate compliance with its technical and delivery requirements. In the solicitations cited above, the resulting contract expressly obliges the contractor to provide the items detailed in the SOR or Annex A. Whatever the SOR says becomes a contractual obligation, so a gap between your offer and the SOR is a compliance risk at bid evaluation and again during performance.

Build your compliance response by working through the SOR line by line. Note each specification, deliverable and schedule, and check any other solicitation clause that refers back to Annex A. If a requirement is unclear, raise it with the contracting authority during the question period rather than assuming an interpretation.