The City of Ottawa is looking for a company to sell cold beverages to residents and visitors at 66 municipal facilities, including Tunney’s Pasture and Hurdman O-Train stations and arenas. The city has issued a request for proposals for the exclusive pouring rights to supply and deliver beverages and vending machine services at municipal facilities for a five-year period. Ottawa’s general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services said the agreement would generate revenue for the city’s coffers. “This is known as a ‘pouring right’ contract to procure a supplier who provides cold beverage products and vending services. This would include carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, juices, flavoured or carbonated water, sports drinks, and other alcohol-free and cannabis-free cold beverage products,” Dan Chenier said in a statement to CTV News Ottawa. “The selected company will provide cold beverage vending machines in designated City facilities and includes opportunities for marketing, sponsorship, and community activation initiatives associated with those products.” The 66 facilities in the contract include Tunney’s Pasture and Hurdman O-Train stations, the Arts Court, Bob MacQuarrie-Orléans Recreation Complex, CardelRec Recreation Complex, the Diane Deans Greenboro Community Centre, Kanata Leisure & Wave Pool Centre, Nepean Sportsplex, the OC Transpo administration building, Ray Friel Recreation Complex and the RIchcraft Recreation Complex. Interested companies have until Sept. 23 to submit their bids. The city says the pouring rights contract would not extend to Lansdowne, Bell Sensplex West, Richcraft Sensplex East and the Cavanagh Senxplex. A report for the community and protective services committee in March 2022 said the city collected $276,000 annually from its deal with Coca-Cola. Staff said the pouring rights agreement was initially expected to end in 2016, but the city still had an outstanding balance of 22,668 cases of Coke products to be sold in 2022 to meet the requirements.
