Co-Administration Support for Decedent and Dependent Adult Estates, regarding Settlement Agreement Compensation Processes

Interested to make a difference and support Indigenous Peoples of Canada? Please consider our Work opportunity by submitting a bid against this Request for proposals before the RFP closing date and time. This competition is open to all suppliers. Please consult the RFP to find if you are qualified.

1.1 Summary:

 This Request for Proposals (RFP) is being issued to satisfy the requirement of Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) for the provision of services in relation with Co-Administration Support for Decedent and Dependent Adult Estates, regarding Settlement Agreement Compensation Processes.

 The intent of this RFP is to award up to four (4) Contracts to qualified Contractors.

Resources requirement: Bidders shall be capable of providing services by proposing a minimum of three (3) qualified resources in the following resource category: Project Administrator, Senior Level.

Proposed period of contract: The initial period is for two (2) years from April 1st, 2025 to March 31, 2027, with provisions to extend the duration by up to two (2) additional one (1) year periods under the same conditions.

Task authorizations : This bid solicitation is to establish Contract(s) with task authorizations for the delivery of the requirement detailed in the solicitation. The services will be required on an as and required basis. For each work requirement, the services will be requested with a separate Task Authorization (TA).

1.2 Description of the Statement of Work:
Under Sections 4(3), 42 to 51 of the Indian Act, the Minister of Indigenous Services is responsible for the estates of registered First Nation individuals who are deceased and were ordinarily resident on reserve at the time of their death, which includes approving Wills, appointing executors or estate administrators, and if necessary, acting as “administrator of last resort” when no family members or friends of the deceased are willing or able to do so. The Minister is also responsible for the administration of property belonging to registered First Nation individuals who live on-reserve and who have been declared by a provincial or territorial authority to be incapable of managing their property, commonly referred to as dependent adult.

When Class Action Settlement Agreements are reached between Indigenous claimants and the Government of Canada, dependent adults and decedent estates may often be eligible for compensation. To avoid a conflict of interest or perceived conflict of interest for decedent and living estates with appointed departmental administrators, impacted by additional harms for a settlement and where Canada is named as the defendant, a third-party co-administrators will be appointed to file a claim on behalf of a First Nation decedent estate or a First Nation person declared a dependent adult (as per regional authorities). As a result, qualified external entities are required to serve as third-party co-administrators on an ongoing and as needed basis.

The Statement of Work to be performed is detailed under Annex A of this Request For Proposals.

1.3 Contracts conditionally Set-aside under the Federal Government Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB) :

This is an open tender. All interested suppliers may submit a bid. However, this procurement will be primarily set aside under the federal government Procurement Strategy for Indigenous Business (PSIB) if two or more bids from Indigenous Businesses are receivable for evaluation and that satisfy the PSIB.

The procurement process will be as follows for the Evaluation and Award of Contracts:

If set-aside: Under a 1st mechanism, if 2 or more indigenous bids are receivable, the contracting authority will limit the competition to those Indigenous businesses and will not consider bids from any non-Indigenous businesses that may have been submitted. Process will be to conduct evaluation on the Indigenous bids, and then award the contracts. As a 2nd mechanism, if we still have capacity (we intent to award up to 4 contracts in total under the requirement), then we will conduct evaluation on all other bids to fulfill the requirement.

If not set-aside: Should there are less than 2 indigenous bids, all bids received will be evaluated under one evaluation.

PSIB: For more information on Indigenous business requirements of the Set-aside program for PSIB, refer to Annex 9.4 of the Supply Manual.

1.4 Trade Agreements: Yes, all applicable. Please see below.

1.5 Security Requirements: Yes applicable - Reliability level and safeguarding of information.

Kingly reach out to me for any enquiry or additional support.
We would appreciate your participation and thank you for consideration!
Vanessa DL, procurement officer responsible for this work requirement : vanessa.demers-lamothe@sac-isc.gc.ca