Indigenous Services Canada Internal Review

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

An Advance Contract Award Notice is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre-identified supplier, thereby allowing other suppliers to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a statement of capabilities. If no supplier submits a statement of capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the Advance Contract Award Notice, on or before the closing date stated in the Advance Contract Award Notice, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

2. Definition of the requirement

The Evaluation Directorate at Indigenous Services Canada (ISC) requires the services of academic evaluator researchers to provide guidance and expertise to one of the most high profile and consequential evaluations in the department’s history. The work includes a variety of tasks to support this complex evaluative process related to child and family programming and long-term departmental reforms.

This work will be conducted collaboratively with ISC and other external partner organizations and will require Canadian experts recognized both domestically and internationally in collaborative, participatory and culturally responsive evaluation as well as expertise in approaches to governance decolonization, indigenizing organizational processes, and management practices that incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and worldviews. The work will involve initial planning, including research and analysis on multifaceted reports, documents, and academic literature to produce a synthesis report and a literature review. It will also require ongoing facilitation of a multi-disciplinary group of experts from various fields including Childhood and Intergenerational trauma and Indigenous health, Government of Canada Experts, Indigenous law, Indigenous culture and heritage, Indigenous history in Canada, Participatory and culturally sensitive evaluation, child welfare to advise ISC and to co-develop an evaluation framework and implementation strategies. The work will then require the ongoing monitoring and validation of said framework upon implementation.

Specifically, the contractor will be required to:

• Produce a literature review to inform the development of the evaluation framework;
• Produce a synthesis report of the substantive reports and studies conducted on the First Nations Child and Family Services Program since 2015;
• Guide and support an External Advisory Committee (EAC) in the development of a framework for the evaluation;
• Facilitate the co-development of an evaluation framework with ISC and in supporting EAC (including, at a minimum, a terms of reference, work-plan, methodology, and lines of inquiry for the evaluation);
• Draft the evaluation framework;
• Monitor the operationalization of the evaluation framework and provide oversight to the evaluation conduct, including monitoring and validation of the evaluation framework and recommendations for refinement if required;
• Provide expert advice and guidance to ISC and to the EAC;
• Engage with First Nations evaluation experts to ensure a culturally appropriate lens is reflected in the deliverables with a specific emphasis on the Indigenous, and in particular First Nations context including sensitivities to the historical and contemporary relationship between the Government of Canada and Indigenous peoples;
• Provide ISC with recommendations and considerations for how to apply and adapt the reform evaluation framework to other evaluations on Indigenous Services Canada’s 5 year evaluation plan that are to be launched including but not limited evaluations related to Child and Family Services and Jordan’s Principle. Subject to engagement and agreement with the EAC and parties, the work will include the integration and/or adaptation of the evaluation reform framework into ISC programs evaluation approaches, specifically within the suite of child and family programs. This would include, but not limited to monitoring and validating the framework applicability as it is piloted in the program context.
• Provide ISC with technical documents, drafts, supporting documents, studies, research, and final reports as determined and required.

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:

• Team lead must have a PhD from a recognized post-secondary institution (university or the equivalent as established by a recognized* Canadian academic credentials assessment service, if obtained outside Canada). *The list of recognized organizations can be found under the Canadian Information Centre for International Credentials.
• Each Team member must have an academic appointment or affiliation with a Canadian University and be recognized by peers as leaders in evaluative practices through memberships, awards, and a breadth of evaluation publications from the participatory lens.
• The work must be conducted through a recognized Canadian post-secondary institution.
• Team lead must have nationally (Canadian) and internationally recognized extensive expertise and experience (at least 10 years within the last 15 years) in the field of participatory and collaborative evaluation, evaluation capacity building, evaluation utilization, evaluation research, and experience with complex, diverse evaluation projects, topics and partners.
• At least one team member must have extensive experience (at least 15 years within the last 20 years) carrying out practical, collaborative, participatory evaluations or evaluation research with partners representing different perspectives and with competing needs.
• Team lead must have proven experience (at least 5 years within the last 10 years) in the establishment of academic teams to support project/contract work. For this contract an academic team will include expertise in culturally responsive approaches to evaluation and experience collaborating in Indigenous research and evaluation methods and experience in decolonizing governance structures.
• At least one team member must have demonstrated experience with Indigenous-focused evaluations or Indigenous-focused evaluative research such as collaborative evaluation development or implementation. 
• At least one team member must have demonstrated expertise in approaches to governance decolonization, indigenizing organizational processes, and management practices that incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and doing through research or practice.
• Team lead must be affiliated with either the Canadian Evaluation Society or the American Evaluation Association.
• At least one team member must be bilingual.

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement

This procurement is subject to the following trade agreements:

• Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
• Revised World Trade Organization - Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP)
• Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
• Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
• Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
• Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement
• Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)
• Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement (Canada-UK TCA)
• Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA)

5. Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

N/A

6. Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement(s)

This procurement is not subject to a Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement.

7. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier

The Pre-Identified Supplier is the home institution of The Centre for Research on Educational and Community Services which collaborates in research, evaluation, and training with organizations in the educational, social service, and health sectors to improve social programs and policies for citizens, especially those facing social exclusion. The Pre-Identified Supplier is uniquely positioned to provide oversight and research of the evaluation work required by ISC, specifically the expert knowledge and experience related to: participatory and collaborative evaluation; evaluation capacity building; evaluation utilization; evaluation research; culturally responsive evaluation methods; experience collaborating in Indigenous research and evaluation methods; experience with complex and diverse evaluation projects, topics and partner groups; and social exclusion, discrimination, and vulnerable populations.

The Pre-Identified Supplier’s personnel have experience carrying out practical collaborative evaluations or evaluation research with partners representing different perspectives and with different/opposing needs. These resources also have academic appointments with a Canadian University and are recognized by peers as leaders in evaluative practices through memberships, awards, recognitions with the Canadian Evaluation Society and American Evaluation Associations, and have extensive publications from the evaluation and participatory evaluation lens. The Pre-Identified Supplier’s resources also have pre-established collaborative relationships with other scholars and Indigenous experts with expertise in decolonizing governance structures, indigenizing organizational processes, and management practices that incorporate Indigenous ways of knowing and doing.

The Pre-Identified Supplier’s resources meet all of the criteria described in this ACAN.

8. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)

The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection

6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work".

9. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons

N/A.

10. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Canada intends to retain ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract on the basis that the main purpose of the contract is to generate knowledge and information for public dissemination.

11. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date

The proposed contract is for a period of three years, with an estimated start date of April 7, 2022 to March 31, 2025 with the opportunity to extend the contract for an additional two, one-year periods if required.

12. Travel

Travel within Canada may be required.

13. Cost estimate of the proposed contract

The estimated value of the contract, including options, is up to $750,000.00 (GST/HST extra).

14. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier

University of Ottawa

75 Laurier Ave. East

Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5

15. Suppliers' right to submit a statement of capabilities

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the goods, services or construction services described in the Advance Contract Award Notice may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the contact person identified in this notice on or before the closing date of this notice. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the advertised requirements.

16. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities.

The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is:

2:00 PM EDT on April 6, 2022

17. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities

soumissionbid@sac-isc.gc.ca