Learn about your taxes: Intervention for high school students

Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) for Learn about your taxes: Intervention for high school students

An ACAN is a public notice indicating to the supplier community that a department or agency intends to award a contract for goods or services 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 ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier.

Requirement Description:

The objective of this contract is to implement an online educational program in Canadian secondary schools to:

a) improve financial literacy
b) increase awareness of tax obligations, and
c) increase confidence to self-file amongst youth, 6th to 12th graders.

The Contractor will support the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) in creating content and questions and answers, in each official language, for an educational outreach program that is designed to entice secondary students to learn more about taxes in Canada. This content will be based on the existing “Learn about your taxes” (LAYT), which is an online learning tool that the CRA created to help students, teachers, newcomers to Canada, and others, understand how the Canadian tax system works. LAYT is currently accessible by the public at : www.canada.ca/learn-about-taxes

The Contractor must:

• Develop questions and answers based on LAYT. The questions will be used to develop a questionnaire for use on the vendor’s online platform. Questions developed under this contract will be translated by the Project Authority (PA)
• Upon finalization of the questions and answers, the Contractor will host the questionnaire on their online platform, accessible by students and the public who have registered on the ChatterHigh platform. Questions will be available for the duration of the contract
• Provide usage reports that include, but are not limited to: number of questions answered, number of web pages visited, percentage of questions answered correctly
• For students, usage reports must show schools reached (overall and by province/territory), and number of unique students reached

The Contractor must deliver the following:

• Creation of up to seven (7) modules, in English and French, based on “Learn about your taxes” web content
• Development of up to a total of 350 questions covering all 7 modules, for use on the Contractor’s online platform. Questions will be based on existing “Learn about your taxes” modules
• Promotion and outreach to secondary school educators, schools, and school boards to promote the modules and additional interactive learning activities (e.g. email, social media, etc.)
• Two (2) online competitions per year to promote the modules (one per semester), including distribution of prizes. The CRA will not be directly involved in any aspect of the competition.
• The platform will create virtual certificates of completion to the participants
• Access to analytics, including raw, anonymized data of all results from modules and quizzes. The data must be sent to the CRA on a minimum of a quarterly basis (3 months), no protected information will be collected as part of this contract.
• Final report of results, including analysis and insights, per semester and the report should include:
o Traffic to site
o Click through rates
o Marketing analytics (engagement on marketing tactics)
o Number of school districts and schools participating
o Number of participants
o Number of questions answered and number of questions answered correctly
o Average correct answers
o Province or territory, gender, and age of participants
o Indigenous identification
o Average correct answer by question in French and in English
o Number of people who answered each question by age and gender
• Project management including project coordination and regular status meetings
• Creation and distribution of surveys (pre/post and post-post surveys) to gather feedback on the modules from students and teachers at the end of each semester. Surveys should be a representative sample from schools across Canada.

Correspondence between the Project Authority (PA) and the Contractor will be conducted in English. The Contractor must produce the material in English and the French translation will be provided by the CRA. Both English and French content must be available on the platform.

The CRA requires:

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

 Minimum 2 years’ experience in the past 5 years creating and promoting interactive learning activities in schools across Canada
 Minimum of 2 projects similar in size, scope and complexity; including ability to create and distribute pre/post surveys.
 Must have a pre-existing online platform to host content, or access to a pre-existing online platform, accessible by schools.
 Must have pre-existing relationships with access to provide learning materials in schools in a minimum of 50 school districts across Canada; ability to create school district working groups from pre-existing relationships

Proposed Contractor:

Name: Chatterhigh Communications Inc.
Address: Unit 2 – 777 Fort Street. Victoria, BC. V8W 1G9

Proposed Period of Contract:

The period of the contract shall be two (2) years with the option to extend the period of the contract for up to three (3) additional one year periods. The contract will contain options for question development in the first year, as well as on-going question maintenance and support services. The contract will also contain options for pre/post surveys and districts working group surveys and data.

Estimated Value of the Proposed Contract:

The proposed five (5) year contract, including all options is estimated at $ 353,946.52 applicable taxes included.

Sole Source Justification:

ChatterHigh Communications Inc. is the only known firm capable of meeting this requirement on the following basis: ChatterHigh Communications Inc. has pre-existing established relationships with school boards across the country along with a proven track record showing their ability to collaborate with educators to integrate learning materials into school classrooms.

Applicable Limited Tendering Reasons:

The CRA is proposing to award a contract as described above in accordance with the following exceptions:

Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
(1) Article 513.1(b) of CFTA is applicable on the basis of limited tendering (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Canada Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA)
(1) Article Kbis-09.1(b) of CCFTA is applicable on the basis of awarding contracts by means other than open tendering where, for works of art, or for reasons connected with the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights, or proprietary information or where there is an absence of competition for technical reasons, the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.

Canada Columbia Free Trade Agreement (CCoFTA)
CCoFTA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 1409.1(b) (iii) is applicable where the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Canada Panama Free Trade Agreement (CPaFTA)
CPaFTA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 16.10.1(b) (iii) is applicable if the procurement can be carried out only by a particular supplier and a reasonable alternative or substitute does not exist because of the absence of competition for technical reasons.

Canada Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA)
(1) Article 1409.1(b) in Chapter 14 of the CPFTA allows for sole sourcing where the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist [pertaining to] (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP)
Article XIII of WTO-AGP is applicable on the basis of limited tendering:
(1) Article XIII 1(b) where the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist for any of the following reasons: (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Canada–Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA)
CKFTA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
Article 1.2: Relation to Other Agreements
The Parties affirm their existing rights and obligations with respect to each other under the WTO Agreement and other agreements to which both Parties are party.

Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement (CHFTA)
CHFTA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 17.11.2(b) a good or service being procured can be supplied only by a particular supplier and a reasonable alternative or substitute does not exist because: (iii) there is an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA)
CUFTA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 10.13.1(b) if the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist for any of the following reason: (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA)
CETA allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 19.12.1b) if the goods or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute goods or services exist for any of the following reasons: (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP)
CPTPP allows for sole sourcing on the following basis:
(1) Article 15.10.2(b) if the good or service can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute good or service exists for any of the following reasons: (iii) due to an absence of competition for technical reasons.

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.

Supplier’s Rights:

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services/goods described herein, may submit a Statement of Capabilities in writing to the Contracting Authority 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.

When submitting a Statement of Capabilities to the Contracting Authority, the supplier must reference the following on the outside of the envelope or on the covering page, in the case of a facsimile transmission:
- CRA file number;
- Contracting Authority’s name; and
- Closing date of the ACAN.

When submitting a Statement of Capabilities by e-mail, the supplier must direct the email to the attention of the Contracting Authority and reference the CRA file number and the ACAN closing date in the subject line.

CLOSING DATE FOR STATEMENT OF CAPABILITIES: 1400 hrs EDT, 2023-05-01 (yyyy-mm-dd)

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

Documents may be submitted in either Official Language of Canada.

Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities should be sent to:

Quan Do
Senior Supply/Business Analyst
Administration Directorate, Canada Revenue Agency
613-219-5298
huyquan.do@cra-arc.gc.ca