Achieving Best Value: Benefits and Shortcomings of Recent Amendments to the Act Respecting Contracting by Public Bodies

The recent adoption of Bill 12 (An Act mainly to promote Québec-sourced and responsible procurement by public bodies, to reinforce the integrity regime of enterprises and to increase the powers of the Autorité des marchés publics) includes the notion of value for the first time in Quebec’s legislative framework applicable to public contracts. This novelty could influence the dominant conception of public interest, which is currently characterized by the precedence of budgetary rationality (Pellerin, 2021). Using a comparative law approach, we propose a critical reading of Quebec’s notion of value, and those of best value or value for money from other jurisdictions. Whether using a call for tenders or a call for proposals involving negotiations, the notion of value is usually conveyed in the form of a scoring formula weighting market and non-market elements (Dimitri, 2013). Given the rise of collaborative delivery methods (Jobidon, 2018), the digital transformation of the industry (Jobidon, 2021) and recent focus on socially and environmentally responsible procurement, we argue that while recent changes to the legislative framework are likely to have an impact on judges’ interpretation of the notion of public interest and on innovative public procurement practices and rules, these effects will remain superficial without other major changes, notably to Quebec regulations regarding solicitation and adjudication methods.