How to use the "Tell Us Once" attestation system to bid faster
A plain-English guide to Canada's new "Tell Us Once" attestation system: what it covers, how to set it up, and where it still leaves gaps.
Image by Tumisu from PixabayIf you've ever bid on more than one government contract, you already know the pain. Every tender asks the same questions again: are you insured, are you Canadian-owned, are you in good standing, do you have a conflict of interest? A new shared system called "Tell Us Once" is designed to end that repetition. Here's what it is, how it works, and how to set your business up to use it well.
What "Tell Us Once" actually means
An attestation is a formal statement you sign confirming that something about your business is true — for example, that you carry the required insurance, or that your company is majority Canadian-owned. Buyers have always asked for attestations. What's new is how you give them.
Under the old system, you filled out an attestation for every single bid, on every single portal, even if nothing about your business had changed since last week. The "Tell Us Once" attestation system flips that. You complete your core attestations one time, store them in your supplier profile, and reuse them across multiple bids and (eventually) multiple buyers. You only update them when something actually changes.
This system is being rolled out as part of the federal Small Business Procurement Program, which is phasing in through 2026 alongside proportional requirements and plain-language tender summaries. It's built specifically with small and medium businesses in mind, because repeat paperwork hits small teams hardest — a five-person company doesn't have a compliance department to knock out the same form twice a week.
Why this matters more than it sounds like it should
Paperwork fatigue is a real reason small businesses stop bidding. If filling in the same attestation form takes an hour, and you're chasing three tenders a month, that's three wasted hours you could have spent on pricing or your technical proposal instead.
Reusable attestations also cut down on a quieter risk: inconsistency. When you retype the same declaration by hand on five different forms, it's easy to make a small slip — a wrong date, a mismatched company name, an insurance figure that's out of date. Evaluators treat mismatches like these as red flags, sometimes serious enough to trigger a compliance check. A single, maintained attestation profile removes that risk because you only ever update it in one place.
If you're not yet sure whether your business even qualifies for the small business stream this system is attached to, it's worth reading how to qualify for the federal Small Business Procurement stream before you go further.
What attestations typically cover
Not every tender asks for the same set of attestations, but most federal opportunities draw from a common list. Expect to be asked to confirm:
- Corporate standing — your business is legally registered and in good standing in its province or territory.
- Insurance and bonding — you carry (or can obtain) the coverage the contract requires.
- Conflict of interest — you have no undisclosed relationship with the buyer that could bias the award.
- Trade agreement eligibility — your business qualifies under the trade agreements that apply to the tender.
- Canadian content or Buy Canadian status — relevant on contracts affected by the federal Buy Canadian Policy, which currently applies an evaluation advantage on large strategic-sector contracts and is expanding to lower thresholds through 2026.
- Set-aside eligibility — if you're bidding as an Indigenous business or under another designated category, confirmation of that status.
Not all of these will be reusable in every case — some are tender-specific by nature, like conflict of interest, which depends on who the buyer actually is. But the core, stable facts about your business — who you are, how you're structured, what you carry for insurance — are exactly what "Tell Us Once" is meant to hold so you never retype them.
Setting up your attestation profile
Getting this right is mostly a one-time job, followed by light maintenance. Here's the order that works best.
- Finish your Supplier Registration Information (SRI) profile first. Attestations sit on top of your core registration, so an incomplete or outdated profile will slow everything down. If you haven't set this up yet, start with what a Supplier Registration Information profile is and why you need one.
- Gather your source documents once. Pull your certificate of incorporation, current insurance certificate, WSIB or workers' compensation standing, and any set-aside certifications into one folder. You'll need these to complete the attestations accurately, and you'll need them again whenever you renew.
- Complete each attestation carefully. Read every line before you sign. An attestation is a legal statement — getting one wrong isn't a typo, it's a compliance problem later.
- Set a renewal reminder. Insurance certificates expire. Corporate standing can lapse if you miss a filing. Put a calendar reminder a month before each attestation's supporting document expires, so you're never bidding on an attestation that's quietly gone stale.
- Recheck before big or unusual bids. For a contract where your business structure, subcontractors, or Canadian-content mix is different from your norm, don't assume your standing attestation still applies without checking.
Old way vs. Tell Us Once — what actually changes
The table below sets out the practical difference between the old per-bid process and the shared attestation model.
| Task | Old way (per bid) | Tell Us Once |
|---|---|---|
| Confirm corporate standing | Re-enter on every tender portal | Confirmed once, reused automatically |
| Prove insurance coverage | Attach or retype details each time | Stored once, flagged for renewal |
| Declare conflict of interest | Filled per tender (still required) | Still per tender — buyer-specific |
| Confirm trade agreement eligibility | Manually checked per opportunity | Pre-confirmed from your profile |
| Update after a business change | Fix it on every open bid separately | Fix it once, applies everywhere |
| Risk of mismatched answers across bids | High — manual retyping | Low — single source of truth |
What "Tell Us Once" doesn't replace
It's worth being clear-eyed here: this system removes repetition, not effort. It does not remove the need to submit a tailored technical proposal, competitive pricing, or references for each individual tender. Those still have to be built fresh, because they answer a specific buyer's specific requirements.
It also doesn't relax how strictly your attestations are checked. Mandatory requirements — including attestations flagged as mandatory — are still pass/fail. Get one wrong or leave it unsigned, and your bid can be disqualified before an evaluator even looks at your pricing. If you're unsure how mandatory requirements differ from the ones that are merely scored, read mandatory vs rated requirements — why one disqualifying mistake costs you the contract.
And because an attestation is a signed legal statement, a false or careless one carries real consequences — from a rejected bid to termination of an awarded contract if the falsehood is discovered later. Treat your attestation profile with the same care you'd give a signature on a cheque.
How this connects to Buy Canadian and reciprocal procurement
The timing of "Tell Us Once" isn't a coincidence. As the federal Buy Canadian Policy and reciprocal procurement rules expand through 2026, buyers are going to ask Canadian-content and eligibility questions on far more contracts than before, not fewer. A reusable attestation profile is what makes that increase manageable for both sides — buyers get a faster, standardized answer, and you don't have to re-prove your Canadian status on every single notice.
If Canadian content is new territory for your business, it's worth understanding what those requirements actually mean before you sign anything related to them. Reciprocal procurement, which narrows most non-defence federal contracts to Canadian and trusted-partner suppliers starting spring 2026, will lean on the same attestation infrastructure — so getting your profile right now puts you ahead of that change too.
Making it part of your regular bidding routine
Treat your attestation profile like your business licence: something you check, not something you fill in from scratch under deadline pressure. Review it quarterly, update it the moment your insurance, ownership, or certifications change, and keep your supporting documents in the same folder so nothing goes stale unnoticed.
Once your profile is solid, use it as leverage. A clean, current, reusable attestation profile means you can move faster than competitors who are still retyping the same declarations bid after bid — and speed matters when good opportunities close fast. Pair that with live tender search so you're spending your saved time finding the right contracts, not just filling in the ones you happen to see.
If you want more on how the broader Small Business Procurement Program fits together — of which attestations are just one piece — read how to navigate the new Small Business Procurement Program in 2026.
As more buyers adopt "Tell Us Once" through 2026, the businesses that set their attestation profile up properly now will spend less time on paperwork and more time on the parts of a bid that actually win contracts. Get it right once, and every bid after it gets a little faster.
