Supply Manual Archive

The Supply Manual Archive is a Government of Canada repository of older and removed Supply Manual material, including archived annexes and prior versions of procurement-policy content. CanadaBuys refers to it when an item is no longer part of the current Supply Manual but is still kept so that people can consult it. The pages that name it describe the material as retained for reference purposes.

The archive is accessible only on the Government of Canada network. Suppliers and other public readers therefore do not open it directly. What they see are the Supply Manual annex pages on CanadaBuys, which identify the archive, give the version number of the archived item, and indicate what the item covered. See the Supply Manual Chapter 3 annexes and the Chapter 2 annexes for the published references.

What the Supply Manual Archive contains

The archive holds material that has been superseded or taken out of the live Supply Manual. The CanadaBuys annex pages connect it to several kinds of federal procurement-policy content:

• procurement-strategy annexes;
• information on the reasons for limited tendering;
• content related to Advance Contract Award Notices (ACANs);
• an archived Exhibit A concerning the Procurement Review Committee; and
• a request-letter template for a National Security Exception.

These items are listed in the Chapter 3 annexes page. A separate CanadaBuys page for Chapter 2 identifies an archived annex on entering a complexity code in the Automated Buyer Environment.

Version numbers cited on CanadaBuys

CanadaBuys identifies archived items by the version of the Supply Manual Archive in which they sit. Three versions are cited on the annex pages:

• Version 2019-3 is cited for archived procurement-strategy material.
• Version 2020-1 is cited for the archived National Security Exception request-letter template.
• Version 2022-3 is cited for the archived annex on the Automated Buyer Environment complexity code, as shown on the Chapter 2 annexes page.

The numbering shows that the archive keeps dated snapshots of the Supply Manual. An item cited to a given version reflects the content as it stood in that version, not necessarily the current text.

Network-only access to the archive

The restriction on access is stated directly on CanadaBuys: the archive can be reached only on the Government of Canada network. In practice this means the archived annexes are a resource for people working inside government systems. A supplier reading a CanadaBuys annex page will find the reference to the archive and its version, but will not be able to retrieve the archived file from outside the network.

What the Supply Manual Archive means for a supplier

The archive is a reference repository, not a source of current requirements. The CanadaBuys pages do not set out any action that a supplier must take in response to the archive itself. Bid teams should treat the current Supply Manual pages on CanadaBuys as the working reference, and read any mention of a Supply Manual Archive version as a sign that the cited item has been retired from the live manual.

If a solicitation, internal procedure or older guidance refers to subjects such as limited tendering, ACANs or the Procurement Review Committee, the archive notes on the Chapter 3 annexes page help a team recognize that some of the underlying material is now archived. A team that needs an archived version for a specific reason can use the version number shown on CanadaBuys to identify exactly which item is meant.