Where the work comes from
Commercial subcontract work in Calgary reaches you one of two ways.
- Public work is advertised. Governments, the City, school boards and health entities post their projects openly. They hire a GC, and the GC hires the trades.
- Private work, such as most tenant improvements, retail fit-outs and offices, usually is not advertised. The GC calls the trades already on its bid list.
So there are two jobs: watch the public work for which GCs are bidding, and get onto the lists of the GCs who do private work. Both start with the same thing: being easy to say yes to.
Before you chase anything: be ready to send
A GC deciding between two quotes will often take the one whose paperwork it does not have to chase. Have these in one folder:
- a current WCB clearance letter,
- personal coverage if you work as a proprietor or partnership with no workers,
- a certificate of liability insurance from your broker (what a GC looks for is in the CGL guide),
- your City of Calgary business licence. The City requires one for general contractors and for specialty trade contractors, including carpenters, electricians, gasfitters, plumbers, framers and welders,
- for electrical, plumbing, gas or HVAC: your City Qualified Tradesperson registration, because in Calgary the trade contractor pulls those permits,
- three recent commercial jobs, each with a name and a phone number.
The full checklist, and which of it is the law, is in what a GC checks before hiring a subcontractor.
Public work: see who is bidding, then call them
Alberta Purchasing Connection
Alberta Purchasing Connection (APC) is the province's tendering site. The Government of Alberta and public bodies, municipalities, school boards and health entities among them, post their opportunities there.
- Anyone can browse the postings without an account.
- A free supplier account lets you download the documents, save searches and get emails when new postings match.
- When you express interest in a posting, the province says your company is added to that posting's Interested Suppliers List, visible to buyers and potential partners.
That last point is the useful one for a sub. It puts your name in front of the GCs pricing the job, and the same list shows you which companies are looking at it, so you know who to send your price to before it closes.
The City of Calgary
The City advertises its bids on SAP Ariba Discovery and on APC, and responding needs an account on the SAP Business Network. City construction work is bid by prequalified contractors, so as a sub you usually reach it through a GC rather than directly.
Two habits that pay:
- Read the award notices. The City aims to post them on Ariba Discovery and APC within 48 hours of each decision. A notice tells you which GC just won a job, and that GC now needs trades.
- Call the winner early, before its packages go out, with your one-page summary and your folder ready.
Federal work
Federal opportunities in Alberta are posted on CanadaBuys. The same rule applies: find the GCs who bid and win, and price for them.
Private work: get onto the bid lists
Nothing is advertised here, so you go to the GCs.
- Make a short list of commercial GCs who build the kind of job you do in the part of the city you work in. Look at the hoarding signs on sites you drive past, and at the GCs named in building permit news.
- Ask for the estimator, not the owner. Estimators build the bid lists.
- Send one page: your trade and scope, crew size, the areas you cover, three recent commercial jobs, and a line saying your WCB letter and insurance certificate are ready to send.
- Price fast, and price what was asked. A GC carries your number into its own bid. A quote that arrives after the GC's bid closes, or prices a different scope, is not a quote it can use.
- Follow up after the bid, win or lose. Asking what the low number was, and whether you can see the next one, is how you get the second invite.
Industry associations are the other door. The Calgary Construction Association counts trade contractors among its members, alongside GCs and suppliers. Ask any association you consider exactly what access to bids and bidders' lists its membership includes.
Keeping the work
The second job from a GC is easier to win than the first, and it comes from the boring things: showing up on the day you said, clean invoices, a certificate sent before it is asked for twice, a site you leave the way you found it. Get paid properly while you are at it: Alberta's prompt payment rules set the deadlines a GC has to pay you by.
Where Syndex fits
Syndex is a private network of commercial subcontractors around Calgary. When a GC posts a request, the members in that trade and area are asked directly, and the GC sees who replied. Each member is reviewed by a person before they are let in, and it is free for subcontractors: no fee to join and no cut of the job.
It does not replace your bid list. It is one more way for a GC who needs a crew to find you.