Tax and Benefits Programs Envelopes (Non T1)

There is no security requirement applicable to this requirement.

OVERVIEW

The CRA has a requirement for the provision of CRA Tax and Benefits Program envelopes, and related transportation services, in support of the various tax programs it administers. The Contractor is responsible for meeting CRA’s requirements on and as-and-when requested basis, and to ensure timely, accurate service delivery.

There are approximately 95 different envelopes that are printed for the Tax and Benefits program.

The total estimated number of annual impressions is approximately 90M. The number of impressions per requirement typically range from 500 to 4.5M impressions.

Envelopes are required in either or both Official Languages, French and English.

The production time ranges from five to 15 business days.

The resulting contract will include a minimum guarantee of $500,000.00 (applicable taxes included), for the period of the contract, including options.

Sustainable Development

It is the Agency’s objective to promote sustainable development initiatives by purchasing environmentally preferable products, where possible, as well as encouraging vendors to use best practices in packaging and delivery to reduce environmental impacts.

The Contractor is required to assist the CRA with achieving these objectives and is responsible for the following:

All paper products must contain a minimum of 30% PCW, or contain virgin fiber originating from a sustainably-managed forest certified to a third-party verified forest certification standard such as or equivalent to the Canadian Standards Association Sustainable Forest Management Standard (CSA/SFMS), the Forestry Stewardship Council (FSC) or the Sustainable Forestry Initiative (SFI). Canada reserves the right to request proof of such qualifications, at its sole discretion, throughout the life of the Contract. All designated stocks are listed in the tables of the Basis of Payment.

Products that are equivalent in certification to the certifications specified will be considered where the Contractor:

• designates the certification(s) name of the product;
• states that the substitute certification is fully interchangeable with one of the certifications specified in the offer;
• provides complete specifications and descriptive literature for each substitute certification;
• provides compliance statements that include technical specifics showing the substitute certification meets all mandatory performance criteria that are specified in one of the certifications specified in the offer; and
• clearly identifies those areas in the specifications and descriptive literature that support the substitute product's compliance with any mandatory performance criteria.

Certification(s) offered as equivalent in form, fit, function and quality will not be considered if:

• the offer fails to provide all the information requested to allow the Contracting Authority to fully evaluate the equivalency of each substitute certification; or
• the substitute certification fails to meet or exceed the mandatory performance criteria of one of the specified certifications identified in the offer.

The CRA may, but will have no obligation to, request the Contractor demonstrate, that the substitute certification is equivalent to the certifications specified herein. The cost to demonstrate the equivalency shall be borne by the Contractor.

All paper products must be manufactured such that if a whitening process is used, the fibre must not have been whitened with elemental chlorine.

Environmental Criteria for Printing Inks:

In order to reduce the environmental impact of its print publishing activities, the CRA chooses to use inks that are considered environmentally friendly, containing vegetable oil-based materials. The printing inks used for requirements under the resulting Contract should adhere to the following criteria for % of vegetable oils as well as the % of VOC within the ingredients composing the ink.

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) Criteria:

The common VOC in a conventional lithographic printing ink is high-boiling aliphatic petroleum distillate. This distillate is used to dissolve the resins that will eventually bind to the substrate during printing. The amount of ink VOC that is released to the atmosphere depends on the process; heatset inks release 80% of their VOCs while sheetfed inks release only 5%.VOC in an environmentally friendlier ink would be below 18 wt% for sheetfed inks, below 30% for sheetfed varnishes, and below 40 wt% for heatset inks and heatset overprint varnishes.

Vegetable Oil Criteria:

Vegetable oils are renewable resources and can include Linseed Oil, Soya Oil, Chinawood Oil and similar plant oils or combinations of them. In conventional lithographic printing inks (heatset and sheetfed) these oils and their derivatives can be used as is, or modified to provide the appropriate press and finished product properties. The Vegetable oil-based materials in an environmentally friendlier ink would be above 25 wt% for sheetfed inks and overprint varnishes, and above 10 wt% for heatset inks and overprint varnishes.

CONTRACT AND OPTIONS PERIODS

The resulting contract will be for an initial period of three years with four irrevocable options to extend the contract period for up to four additional years, to be exercised in 1-year increments.

Price Escalation/De-escalation

Prices for the second and third year of the initial contract period and optional periods of service, if exercised at CRA's discretion, will be adjusted (i.e. either increased or decreased) in accordance with the following, as published by Statistics Canada:

For printed products (Tables A, A1, A2, A3, A4 and A5 in Attachment 3 to Part 4): Table 1 Industrial Product Price Index - Not seasonally adjusted for Pulp and Paper.

For shipping costs (Table B2 in Attachment 3 to Part 4): Table 1 Consumer Price Index and major components, Canada - Not seasonally adjusted for Transportation.

The prices of the previous contract year will be multiplied by the "% change" published for the twelve month period preceding the contract anniversary date (for the second and third contract year) or the month preceding the month in which the Option is exercised.

The release schedule for the main economic indicators is available at the following address:

https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/dai-quo/cal1-eng.htm

TRADE AGREEMENTS

Only the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) is applicable to this requirement.

Contractor Selection Methodology

The Bidder must meet all mandatory criteria applicable to this solicitation. Only the bids meeting the mandatory criteria will be evaluated and scored in accordance with the point rated evaluation criteria. Any proposal that does not achieve the minimum score of 87 points out of 145 will be considered non-compliant and will receive no further consideration.

To determine an overall score for each proposal, technical and price will each be given a rating value; in this case, 60% for technical and 40% for price, and then combined to derive a total combined rating.

The Bidder recommended for award of the Contract will be the compliant Bidder achieving the highest combined rating.

Connect services Bid Submission only:

Bids must be submitted only to the Canada Revenue Agency Bid Receiving Unit via Connect services by the time and date indicated on RFP Page 1.　

Bids must be submitted to via Connect services:　　

Canada Revenue Agency

Bid Receiving Unit

BRUg@cra-arc.gc.ca

Bids will not be accepted if emailed directly to this email address. This email address must be used to request that CRA open a Connect conversation, as detailed in Standard Instructions 2003. Bidders must not use their own licensing agreement for Connect to initiate a Connect conversation with CRA.

Bidders are hereby advised that the Bid Receiving Unit of CRA is available Monday to Friday inclusive, between the hours of 0830 and 1500 EST, excluding those days that the federal government observes as a holiday.

Due to the nature of this solicitation, electronic transmissions of a proposal by facsimile is not considered to be practical and therefore will not be accepted.

All enquiries regarding this Request for Proposal must be directed in WRITING (see email address below) to:

CONTRACTING Authority:

Marie-Claude Lepage

Phone number: 343-572-7146

E-Mail:　marie-claude.lepage@cra-arc.gc.ca