Canadian Forces Station Alert Site Support Services

Introduction

P1 Consulting was engaged on September 4, 2018 as a fairness monitor (FM) to observe the procurement process for Canadian Forces Station (CFS) Alert Site Support Services issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) on behalf of the Department of National Defence (DND) as a result of solicitation numbers W6369-180007, W6369-180007-2, W6369-180007-3 and W6369-180007-4.

P1 Consulting is an independent third party with respect to this activity. We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities.

We hereby submit the final report, covering the activities of the FM commencing from the start of our engagement continuing to the conclusion of the request for proposal (RFP) evaluation activities.

This report includes:

• our attestation of assurance
• a summary of the scope and objectives of our assignment
• and relevant observations from the activities undertaken

Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below that concerns the CFS Alert Site Support Services procurement.

It is our professional opinion that the procurement process which we observed or monitored was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

Original signed by:

Project requirement

CFS Alert is, primarily, a military communications station, located in Nunavut on the north-eastern tip of Ellesmere Island. The station is approximately 817 kilometers (Km) from the North Pole and is the most northern permanently inhabited settlement in the world. The nearest settlement is the Inuit community of Grise Fiord, about 725 Km to the south. Communication from Alert to southern Canada is provided through DND’s facilities in Eureka in central Ellesmere Island.

The primary activity of the station is to support military communications activities for the Canadian Forces. Secondly, CFS Alert supports other government sponsored activities, including the operation of an Environment and Climate Change Canada weather station and associated scientific research projects. DND anticipates that government activity at Alert will continue to increase, both in military and non-military areas.

DND has a requirement for the provision of non-mission operations and maintenance of various site support services at CFS Alert. The requirement is for a single contract which would include, but not necessarily be limited to:

• food services
• roads and grounds maintenance
• transportation services
• vehicle and infrastructure maintenance services
• power supply and water management

The requirement also includes support to other DND activities on Ellesmere Island, such as support to the DND facilities in Eureka, on an as and when required basis. The requirement is for a period of 8 years with options to extend the period of performance by 2 4-year periods for a potential 16-year period.

Fairness monitoring engagement and methodology

P1 Consulting was engaged as an FM to observe the CFS Alert procurement, and to attest to the fairness, openness and transparency of this monitored activity.

In this section

• Request for information W6369-180007
• Request for information W6369-180007-2
• Invitation to qualify W6369-180007-3
• Request for proposal W6369-180007-4

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents
• observed the invitation to qualify (ITQ) and RFP processes
• identified fairness-related matters to the contracting and technical authorities if and when applicable
• ensured that responses and actions were reasonable, appropriate and fair

We reviewed all of the information provided and observed all relevant activities as described herein from our engagement date, onwards.

Request for information W6369-180007

The FM observed the procurement process for CFS Alert related to the request for information (RFI) W6369-180007 issued by PWGSC. As part of our FM engagement, we undertook the following.

Review of the request for information, and amendments

Prior to posting, the FM reviewed the RFI posted on October 23, 2018, which closed on July 31, 2020, including 4 amendments.

Review of request for information summary reports

Prior to posting, the FM reviewed the 2 RFI summary reports which were posted on BuyandSell on June 24, 2019 and July 23, 2020.

Supplier engagement

The FM attended 8 one-on-one meetings with suppliers that took place between June 16, 2020 and June 19, 2020. The FM also monitored communications throughout the RFI period.

Throughout our engagement, any fairness concerns raised were adequately addressed by the contracting authority (CA).

Request for information W6369-180007-2

The FM observed the procurement process for CFS Alert related to the RFI W6369-180007-2 issued by PWGSC. As part of our FM engagement, we undertook the following.

Review of the request for information, and amendments

Prior to posting, the FM reviewed the RFI posted on September 1, 2020, which closed on April 1, 2021, there were no amendments issued.

Supplier engagement

The FM attended 2 one-on-one meetings with suppliers that took place on November 25, 2020, and 4 one-on-one meetings with suppliers that took place between March 3, 2021 and March 31, 2021. The FM also monitored communications throughout the RFI period.

Throughout our engagement, any fairness concerns raised were adequately addressed by the CA.

Invitation to qualify W6369-180007-3

The FM observed the procurement process for CFS Alert related to the RFI W6369-180007-3 issued by PWGSC. As part of our FM engagement, we undertook the following.

Review of the request for information, and amendments

Prior to posting the FM reviewed the ITQ which included the draft RFP and statement of work, and was posted on April 20, 2021. The FM also reviewed the 2 amendments related to the ITQ.

Review of invitation to qualify closing

P1 Consulting received confirmation from the CA that no submissions were received following the closing deadline of June 9, 2021 at 2:00 pm Eastern standard time (EST). There were 5 ITQ submissions received in advance of the deadline.

Review of evaluation criteria and procedures

P1 Consulting reviewed the evaluation guidelines and procedures for the ITQ to confirm that the evaluation would be completed in a manner that was fair, open and transparent. An evaluation training meeting took place on June 8, 2021, which was not attended by the FM, however the CA provided the meeting materials and a summary of the meeting to the FM afterwards.

Evaluation of the bids

Prior to proceeding with their individual evaluation of the ITQ submissions, the evaluators signed off on a conflict of interest and confidentiality form to confirm their commitment to undertaking the evaluation in a fair and ethical way. All 5 submissions were evaluated in accordance with the established criteria within the ITQ, which included the mandatory criteria and the point-rated criteria requiring a minimum pass mark.

On July 12, 2021, and July 13, 2021 the FM attended the consensus where evaluators came to consensus on the evaluation results. In accordance with the ITQ’s Inuit Firm Registry (IFR) Nunavut directive, if 2 or more Inuit firms meet the ITQ requirements, only those IFR firms would be eligible to participate in the RFP stage of the procurement. Based on this requirement, and the outcome of the evaluation, 2 firms were eligible to continue to the RFP stage.

Invitation to qualify notification letters

On July 19, 2021, we reviewed the draft notification letters for the ITQ process which notified bidders of the ITQ evaluation results. On July 27, 2021, the CA issued the ITQ results letters to the 2 prequalified bidders and the 3 unsuccessful bidders.

Throughout our engagement, any fairness concerns raised were adequately addressed by the CA.

Request for proposal W6369-180007-4

The FM observed the procurement process for CFS Alert related to the RFP W6369-180007-4 issued by PWGSC. As part of our FM engagement, we undertook the following.

Review of the request for proposal, and addenda

The FM reviewed the RFP distributed to prequalified bidders on August 9, 2021, which closed on January 14 2022, including 11 amendments with questions and answers. All documents were provided to bidders via email.

Mandatory site visit

The FM attended and monitored the mandatory site visit to CFS Alert held from October 4, 2021 to October 7, 2021, including the mandatory 14 day quarantine period that preceded the visit. The FM reviewed and monitored communications shared with suppliers in preparation for the visit as well as those provided while on-site.

Review of request for proposal closing

P1 Consulting received confirmation from the CA that no submissions were received following the closing deadline of January 14, 2021 at 2:00 pm EST. There were 2 RFP submissions received in advance of the deadline.

Review of evaluation criteria and procedures

P1 Consulting reviewed the evaluation guidelines and procedures for the RFP to confirm that the evaluation would be completed in a manner that was fair, open and transparent. An evaluation training meeting took place on January 18, 2022, which was attended by the FM and all members of the evaluation team in preparation for their role in the evaluation. Fairness-related comments were provided, and appropriate action was taken by the CA and evaluation team.

Evaluation of the bids

Prior to proceeding with their individual evaluation of the RFP submissions, the evaluators signed off on a conflict of interest and confidentiality form to confirm their commitment to undertaking the evaluation in a fair and ethical manner. Both submissions were evaluated in accordance with the established criteria included within the RFP.

The FM attended the consensus meetings that took place between February 17, 2022 and February 23, 2022. At the meeting evaluators came to consensus on the evaluation results. Overall, the FM observed that the evaluation was conducted in a fair and consistent manner.

Financial assessment and final evaluation results

The CA provided the draft consensus spreadsheets and financial results to the FM on March 16, 2022. The CA provided the final consensus spreadsheets to the FM on March 28, 2022. The FM reviewed the documents which were found to be consistent with the evaluation scoring methodology and process specified in the RFP. The FM reviewed the final scores and did not observe any fairness concerns related to that process.

Throughout our engagement, any fairness concerns raised were adequately addressed by the CA.

Reference documents

Documents related to solicitation W6369-180007, W6369-180007-2 and W6369-180007-3 are available on CanadaBuys.

The RFP documents were distributed directly to eligible bidders and are available through the project office.

Addendum to the final report

March 3, 2023

Addendum to the final report dated April 6, 2022, for the procurement process for CFS Alert Site Support Services issued by PWGSC on behalf of the DND.

This addendum to the final report covers the period following the conclusion of the evaluation phase including contract award and debriefings.

On September 26, 2022 the FM reviewed the evaluation letter which was subsequently sent to the unsuccessful bidder. The FM found the letter to be acceptable from a fairness perspective.

On October 3, 2022 the CA awarded the contract to the successful bidder.

Both bidders requested debriefing meetings which were conducted virtually on November 16, 2022, and November 24, 2022. The meetings were carried out by the CA and the client authority with the FM in attendance. There were no issues raised by any bidder which impacted our attestation as the FM for this project that the procurement was conducted in an open, fair and transparent manner.

Attestation of assurance

The FM hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below concerning the CFS Alert Site Support Services procurement.

It is our professional opinion that the procurement process that we observed or monitored was carried out in a fair, open and transparent manner.

Original signed by: