Credit Conditions Survey

Tendering Procedure: Open

***There are NO contractors performing services described in this RFP

Project Title:

Credit Conditions Survey

Summary

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) is soliciting bids (also referred to as “proposals”) for the services of a Contractor to provide Credit Conditions Survey as defined in Appendix “A”, Statement of Work (the “Work”), for a period commencing from date of Contract award to October 31, 2022, with one (1) option to extend for one (1) year.

Background:

Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada (ISED) maintains close contact with the small business community as part of its monitoring and data collection activities. Since 2009, ISED has managed various surveys on the borrowing activities of small businesses. Two in particular include the Credit Conditions Survey (CCS) and the larger Survey on Financing and Growth of Small and Medium Enterprises (SFGSME), which is conducted every three years and also surveys medium-sized businesses. The CCS is implemented in years when the SFGSME is not conducted. The last iteration of the SFGSME is 2020. The CCS will be conducted for reference years 2021 and 2022. These surveys monitor small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to provide key information on small-business-lending conditions to the business community, lenders, policy makers and academics

Project Requirement / Objective:

The purpose of this project is to collect factual data on credit availability conditions for small businesses (1 to 99 employees). The project aims to answer various questions regarding

- financing applications and approval rates;

- financing amounts requested and received;

- interest rates and length of loans;

- collateral required to obtain financing;

- intended use of required financing;

- business and owner characteristics;

- structure of the industry and region.

SCOPE OF WORK / TASKS

The Consultant will:

• Deliver a survey questionnaire approved by ISED that will have a maximum of 30 questions

  and which is largely based on the 2019 Credit Conditions Survey questionnaire.

• Develop a sampling strategy approved by ISED for the regions (Atlantic, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba/Saskatchewan, Alberta and British-Columbia) and industries (Primary sector (mining, included), Construction, Manufacturing, Wholesale/Retail trade, Transportation/Warehousing, Professional Services, Accommodation and Food services, Other services, Other sectors).
• Establish the weighting required to ensure that the survey results are representative of the population of small businesses in Canada. A list of the industrial sectors that will not be included in this survey will be provided.
• Conduct the survey during the stipulated period using data collection strategy that is in the Contractor’s bid (telephone interview, online survey, mail survey, etc).
• Deliver to ISED a progress report of data collection by industry sector and region periodically (weekly or bi-weekly).
• Deliver to ISED a clean data file that can be used by ISED for analysis and cross-tabulations purposes. The data file will be in Excel format, containing all the survey results, for each questions. The record layout data or data dictionary will also be provided.
• Deliver to ISED the required data tables indicating the margins of error for all the results, displayed by industry, region and business size (1–4, 5–19, 20–99 employees).
• Deliver to ISED a methodology report that describes all of the key aspects of the survey process that is used for this project such as: the survey frame, the sampling strategy, the weights that were applied to the data, and the data collection details.

  Security Requirement: N/A

  Minimum Corporate Security Required: N/A

  Minimum Resource Security Required: N/A

  Contract Authority

  Name: Suzanne Gauthier

  Phone Number: 343-572-8946

  Inquiries

  Inquiries regarding this RFP requirement must be submitted to the Contracting Authority named above by email at : ic.cmmbidreceiving-receptiondesoffrescgm.ic@ised-isde.gc.ca