How it works

Public buyers on Vancouver Island spend millions every year on cleaning, grounds, building maintenance and other services. CrewBid gathers those opportunities in one place and tells you which ones are worth your time.

1. Tell us your trades and area. Pick what you do and where you work. It takes a minute and there is no password to remember.
2. We read every tender site. Each day we pull new notices from federal, provincial, municipal, school, health and utility buyers, and drop the noise.
3. You get the ones that fit. A weekly email with only your matches, each explained in plain language: what the job is, where, when it closes and what to watch for.

1. Collect

Every day we pull new notices from the federal CanadaBuys data, buyer RSS feeds, and the vendor alert emails sent by BC Bid, Bonfire and bids&tenders portals. We also add invited quotes and strata requests that people send us. See the full list on where we look.

2. Clean up

The same tender often appears on two portals. We link duplicates so you see each job once, and when a buyer posts an amendment we update the original. Co-op "notice of intent" postings, which aren't open to bids, are filtered out.

3. Sort and explain

Keyword rules sort every notice by trade and area. For notices that look relevant to the Island, an AI model reads the full text and writes a short, plain-language summary. It also lists what to watch for: mandatory site visits, security clearance, bonding, insurance minimums and similar conditions that rule a bid in or out.

Summaries are a shortcut, not a substitute. Always read the official posting and documents before you bid.

4. Deliver

Each Monday you get one email with the new contracts that match your trades and areas. Log in any time to browse, save the ones worth a look, mark the ones you're bidding on and hide the rest. Login is by email link, so there's no password to forget.

What you get

• Plain-language summaries. Forty pages of procurement language becomes three sentences on what the buyer actually wants done.
• Matched to your trade. Every notice is sorted by trade and Island area, so a roofer never wades through IT tenders.
• Red flags up front. Mandatory site visits, security clearance, bonding and insurance minimums are pulled out before you read further.
• Recurring work marked. Multi-year maintenance contracts are flagged, because those are the ones that build a business.
• Duplicates removed. The same tender posted on two portals shows up once. Amendments update the original.
• Track your bids. Save the ones worth a look, mark the ones you are bidding on and hide the rest.