599 Tremblay Road Development Project

Introduction

Raymond Chabot Grant Thornton Consulting Inc. (RCGT) was engaged on July 22, 2019 as a fairness monitor (FM) to observe the 599 Tremblay Road Development Project procurement process, issued by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), as a result of solicitation 5225-2-2020-5. RCGT is an independent third party with respect to this activity.

RCGT reviewed all the information provided and observed all relevant activities of the procurement process, as identified in the section Fairness monitoring engagement and methodology of this report. We hereby submit the FM final report, covering the activities of the FM, from July 22, 2019 through to January 19, 2023.

This report includes:

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

Attestation of assurance

Based on the activities performed and described in this report, the FM hereby provides the unqualified assurance statement below concerning the procurement process for the 599 Tremblay Road Development project.

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:

Project requirement

PWGSC acquired a 10.7-hectare parcel of land formerly known as 530 Tremblay Road in 2009. Of the 10.7 hectares, approximately 3.2 hectares known at 599 Tremblay Road (the Site) will be used for the project.

PWGSC is looking for a private party to develop on the Site, through a Lease-Leaseback approach, 150,000 rentable square metres of highly sustainable buildings in a campus-type setting, including general-purpose office, retail and special purpose space in multiple buildings as well as associated supporting infrastructure requirements including site parking. This is to be constructed on the Site, currently a greenfield, through a land lease arrangement which will terminate at the end of a 25-year term.

Fairness monitoring engagement and methodology

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• reviewed documents provided by the contracting authority (CA)
• monitored communications with proponents provided by the CA
• attended meetings that the CA requested our presence at
• identified any potential fairness-related matters to the CA
• ensured that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate

This report is based on information made available to us by the CA from July 22, 2019 to January 19, 2023.

Request for qualification

• March 17, 2020, to April 14, 2020
  • a review of the request for qualification (RFQ) was performed and questions, comments and identified issues were discussed
  • RCGT received the first draft of the RFQ on March 17, 2020
  • the RFQ was posted on buyandsell.gc.ca on April 16, 2020
  • 8 amendments to the RFQ were issued, from May 6, 2020, to July 24, 2020, respectively
• April 28, 2020, to July 23, 2020
  • a review of all questions and answers’ responses and the corresponding RFQ amendments was conducted
• May 7, 2020
  • the FM attended (virtually) 3 information sessions held by the procurement team
• October 2020 to January 2021
  • attended a series of evaluation consensus meetings

The RFQ closed on August 6, 2020, at 14:00 Eastern standard time.

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents
• observed the RFQ phase
• provided comments and feedback to the CA
• ensured that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate

All comments identified by RCGT throughout the RFQ phase were addressed by the CA.

Request for proposal phase

The following activities were performed by the FM during this phase:

• July 27, 2021 to July 30, 2021
  • we performed a review of the request for proposal (RFP)
  • questions, comments and issues identified were addressed
  • RCGT received the first draft of the RFP on June 30, 2021
  • the RFP was posted on Firmex using an electronic data room on July 27, 2021
  • there were 24 Addenda and 4 versions of the RFP uploaded to the data room from July 30, 2021 to October 27, 2022, respectively
• attended (virtually) a series of Commercially Confidential Proponent Meetings (CCMs) conducted from November 29, 2021 to December 1, 2021
• attended (virtually) a series of Spacing Solutions CCMs conducted from March 29, 2022 to March 30, 2022
• attended (virtually) a series of National Building Code of Canada CCMs conducted on May 16, 2022
• August 31, 2021 to November 3, 2022 reviewed all questions and responses along with the corresponding RFP amendments

The deadlines for the RFP were as follows:

• July 20, 2022: technical proposal submission
• July 29, 2022: technical proposal presentation
  • presentation was sent and was not performed interactively with proponents
• September 28, 2022: price proposal submission

In accordance with the terms of our engagement, we:

• familiarized ourselves with the relevant documents
• observed the activities above
• identified fairness-related matters to the CA
• ensured that responses and actions were reasonable and appropriate

The FM provided to the CA minor comments to the proposed RFP document and related amendments which were appropriately resolved by the CA. There are no unresolved matters related to the RFP phase, nor any observations to report which would impact our attestation.

Evaluation phase

The following activities were performed by the FM during this phase:

• attended evaluation consensus meetings from September 13, 2022 to November 15, 2022
• observed the evaluation process including observing the consensus meetings of the evaluation team
• reviewed documentation related to the evaluation results
• reviewed correspondence issued to proponents

The evaluators performed individual evaluations first and then conducted a series of meetings to come to a consensus score. The meetings were mediated by the technical authority with support from the CA.

A total of 2 bids were received. Using the evaluation criteria, it was determined that both bidders did not meet the required minimum score specified in the RFP.

On December 9, 2022, PWGSC notified both bidders that PWGSC did not receive any compliant technical proposals and could not identify a preferred proponent, PWGSC terminated the RFP process and cancelled the project under its current configuration, in accordance with RFP.

On January 19, 2023 debrief letters were sent to both bidders.

Reference documents

The documents related to solicitation number 5225-2-2020-5 are available on CanadaBuys or through the project office.