Quantitative

Trade Agreement: Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT) Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid Competitive Procurement Strategy: Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No Nature of Requirements:

Quantitative

35035-165059/B Amaral, Paola Telephone No. - (613) 998-8588

NATURE OF REQUIREMENT

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), on behalf of the Privy Council Office (PCO), has a requirement to conduct an on-going quantitative public opinion research data collection project to ensure up-to-date and accurate representations of Canadian opinion on various issues, notably as they relate to Government of Canada priorities.

PERIOD OF THE CONTRACT

The period of the contract will be for one (1) year with the possibility of two (2) additional one (1) year option periods.

SOURCING

The requirement is subject to the provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT).

The Federal Contractors Program (FCP) foremployment equity applies to this procurement; see Part 5 - Certifications, Part 7 - Resulting Contract Clauses and the annex titled Federal Contractors Program for Employment Equity - Certification.

EVALUATION CRITERIA

MANDATORY EVALUATION CRITERIA

M.1 Fieldwork Manager

The bidder must identify one (1) fieldwork manager who is able to communicate with the project authority in English and one (1) fieldwork manager who is able to communicate with the project authority in French. The individual identified for each language can be the same person. The bidder must provide the curriculum vitae of the proposed fieldwork manager. The curriculum vitae should include:

a) the candidate’s professional experience; b) the candidate’s employmenthistory, starting with the present (in months/years), and including a brief description of each role; c) the candidate’s education, including the field of study, memberships, publications, certification and training; d) the candidate’s language capabilities or proficiency for each of the two (2) official languages of Canada (i.e. English and French).

M.2 Fieldwork Manager- Sample Projects

The bidder must demonstrate the experience of each of the proposed fieldwork managers in the following way. The bidder must submit two (2) quantitative telephone surveys that each fieldwork manager has produced and completed* in Canada in the two (2) years preceding the bid closing date. The samples submitted will be evaluated in the Point Rated TechnicalEvaluation R.4 - Fieldwork Manager - Sample Projects. Please use the sample project format in R.4 to submit sample projects.

*Completed is defined as when the final data was submitted to the client.

At least one (1) of the two (2) projects submitted must include a tracking telephone survey**, with multiple waves (minimum two (2)) in which a minimum of 500 respondents were contacted per wave.

**A tracking survey is defined as asking the same target population the same set of questions at different time intervals to measure changes in responses over time. The sample for each time interval (i.e. wave) does not need to consist of the same respondents.

At least one (1) of the two (2) projects submitted must be national*** in scope, and must demonstrate that a final sample is representative**** of the target population in terms of age, gender, and region/province, based on Statistics Canada data at the time of study.

***National is defined as a project being delivered in at least four (4) regions of Canada. One (1) of these regions must be Quebec. The regions are: • British Columbia; • Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba); • Ontario; • Quebec; • Atlantic (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador); and • The Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut).

**** Representative is defined as a final sample that is composed of individuals who have been randomly selected from the adult Canadian population, and thus the sample is an accurate reflection of the adult Canadian population. The final sample proportion must be within +/-2% of the population proportion.

M.3 Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractors

All fieldwork must be completed in Canada. The bidder must identify whether all fieldwork will be conducted with either:

• in-house resources; • a sub-contractor; or • a combination of in-house resources and a sub-contractor.

If a sub-contractor is involved, the same sub-contractor will be required to complete all projects for the duration of the contract unless authorized in writing by Public Works and Government Services Canada.

In the case of the use of a sub-contractor, the bidder must provide

• the name of the sub-contractor; • the number of years in business; and • the research components for which they will be responsible.

M.4 Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractor - Project Samples

The bidder must submit a minimum of three (3) but no more than five (5) quantitative telephone surveys completed in Canada by the fieldwork firm / sub-contractor identified in M.3. At a minimum, one (1) project must be a tracking survey, with at least two (2) waves in which a minimum of 500 respondents were contacted per wave. Tables M.4.1 and M.4.2 must be provided for each sample project submitted. The samples will be evaluated in the Point Rated Technical Evaluation R.5 - Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractor’s Experience.

M.5 Financial Proposal / Basis of Payment

The bidder must provide rates for the initial contract period and each of the option periods in accordance with Annex ?B2? - Basis of Payment, Pricing - Quantitative Surveys.

BASIS OF SELECTION

Highest Combined Rating of Technical Merit and Price

1. To be declared responsive, a bid must

a. comply with all the requirements of the bid solicitation; and

b. meet all mandatory criteria; and

c. obtain the required minimum points specified for each criterion for the technical evaluation, and

d. obtain the required minimum of 945 points overall for the technical evaluation criteria which are subject to point rating. The rating is performed on a scale of 1350 points.

2. Bids not meeting (a) or (b) or (c) and (d) will bedeclared non-responsive.

3. The selection will be based on the highest responsive combined rating of technical merit and price. The ratio will be 70% for the technical merit and 30% for the price.

4. To establish the technical merit score, the overall technical score for each responsive bid will be determined as follows: total number of points obtained / maximum number of points available multiplied by the ratio of 70%.

5. To establish the pricing score, each firm price or rate will be prorated against the lowest firm price or rate for each individualcategory of service. The ratio of 30% will be divided against the five main category services as follows:

15/30 - Firm Contract Price for Initial and Option Periods (10 minute interview completions) 3.75/30 - Firm Rate for 12 minutes of interview completions (Landline) 3.75/30 - Firm Rate for 12 minutes of interview completions (Cell phone) 3.75/30 - Firm Rate for 14 minutes of interview completions (Landline) 3.75/30 - Firm Rate for 14 minutes of interview completions (Cell phone)

6. For each responsive bid, the technical merit score and the pricing score will be added to determine its combined rating.

7. Neither the responsive bid obtaining the highest technical score nor theone with the lowest evaluated price will necessarily be accepted. The responsive bid with the highest combined rating of technical merit and price will be recommended for award of a contract.

All inquiries regarding aspects of this request for proposal should be e-mailed to: Paola.Amaral@pwgsc-tpsgc.gc.ca

All solicitation documents must be obtained through http://buyandsell.gc.ca

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.