Poison Centre Surveillance Initiative

Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)

Title: Poison Centre Surveillance Initiative

Solicitation Number: 1000204151

1. The Purpose and Explanation of an ACAN

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada to post a notice for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a goods, services or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the minimum requirements identified in the ACAN, the Contracting Authority may then proceed to award a contract to the pre-identified contractor.

2. Rights of Suppliers

Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If the Bidder can clearly demonstrate they possess the required capabilities, the requirement will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.

3. Proposed Contractor

Parachute Canada

150 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 300

Toronto, Ontario, M4P 1E8

4. Definition of Requirements or Expected Results

Unintentional poisonings are a leading cause of preventable injury and death in Canada, particularly amongst children, and other vulnerable populations. Canada’s five Regional Poison Centres (PCs) are the focal point for medical professionals and the general public to seek medical guidance for treatment of poisonings and adverse drug reactions. Collectively the PCs respond to over 184,000 calls per year generating valuable evidence-based exposure information spanning: therapeutic and health products, consumer products, pesticides, controlled substances, environmental and occupational exposures, foodborne illness as well as agents of concern for suicide, criminal acts and terrorism.

Canada is developing a pan-Canadian toxicovigilance system to aggregate, harmonize, and interpret poison control data to provide near real-time surveillance and generate national statistics on poisonings and adverse drug reactions.

Since 2014, the CSSPI Task Force has been collaborating with its partners to define requirements, conduct feasibility assessments, and making recommendations to decision makers on the potential options with respect to the development and sustainability of a pan-Canadian federated toxicovigilance system. By August of 2016 the Task Force has completed, amongst other achievements a business requirements document and business case. This contract builds upon the analysis that has been conducted and is the first step towards development of a pan-Canadian Poison Centre surveillance system.

The Health Portfolio in collaboration with the Canadian Association Poison Control Centres (CAPCC), provincial poison centres and provincial/territorial health authorities among other stakeholders is implementing the Canadian Surveillance System for Poison Information (CSSPI) program over the next five fiscal years, from 2018-2019 to 2022-2023. The CAPCC is the only medical toxicology authority in Canada comprised of membership of the medical directors, medical toxicologists, and poison centre staff including certified specialists in poison information embedded within the poison centres. To support CSSPI implementation and operations, Health Canada requires the services of an organization to conduct knowledge translation and outreach activities within a large network across Canada, to coordinate CSSPI face-to-face meetings across key stakeholders as well as to develop and publish a poison centre cost of injury report, status reports and annual data reports. These deliverables are a requirement for successful CSSPI implementation and the creation of a sustainable Canadian toxicovigilance system. Neither Health Canada’s Surveillance and Coordination Unit nor the CAPCC are equipped to conduct these activities.

5. Minimum Requirements

Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a Statement of Capabilities that it meets the following minimum requirements:

1. The Bidder’s home organization must have significant and recent experience in injury prevention and harm reduction activities.
2. The Bidder’s home organization must have significant knowledge and experience in knowledge translation and public outreach.
3. The Bidder’s home organization must have significant and recent experience working with Canadian Association Poison Control Centres (CAPCC), which is the only national body with the authority to represent the regional poison centres, the Health Portfolio as well as provincial/territorial health authorities.
4. The Bidder’s home organization must have an established pan-Canadian network comprised of partners and stakeholders spanning federal/provincial/territorial health authorities as well as NGOs, academia and international partners involved in all-hazard prevention and harm reduction efforts.

• Significant and recent experience is defined as minimum two (2) years of experience within the last three (3) years.

6. Reason for Non-Competitive Award

Section 6 of the Government Contracts Regulations contains four exceptions that permit the contracting authority to set aside the requirement to solicit bids. For the proposed procurement, the following exception applies:

(d) Only One Person or Firm is capable of performing the contract.

7. Applicable trade Agreements and Justification for Limited Tendering or the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business

This requirement is subject to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), the World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-GPA) and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA). The requirement is being directed to the proposed supplier as permitted under the following sections of the above trade agreements:

• Article 513 b) of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
• Article XV, 1b of the World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP)
• Article 1016, 2(b) of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA

8. Ownership of Intellectual Property

Contractor will own IP.

9. Period of the Proposed Contract

The contract period shall be from date of contract award until the 31st of March, 2019, with four (4) option periods.

10. Estimated Value of the Proposed Contract

The estimated value of the proposed contract is $79,000.00 including all applicable taxes, plus four (4) option periods, Option Period 1 – 2019/2020 - $93,000.00, Option Period 2 – 2020/2021 - $139,252.00, Option Period 3 – 2021/2022 - $308,252.00 and Option Period 4 – 2022/2023 - $378,252.00. Total potential value of the contract is $997,756.00.

11. Closing Date and Time

The Closing Date and Time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is October 19, 2018, 2PM EDT.

12. Contact Person

All enquiries must be addressed by e-mail to:

Name: Yvonne Murphy
E-Mail: yvonne.murphy@canada.ca