Quantitative

Trade Agreement: Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT)
Tendering Procedures: All interested suppliers may submit a bid
Competitive Procurement Strategy: 
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Nature of Requirements: 

Quantitative

35035-165059/A
Amaral, Paola
Telephone No. - (613) 998-8588


NATURE OF REQUIREMENT 

Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), on behalf of the Privy Council Office (PCO), has a requirement to conduct an on-going quantitative public opinion research data collection project to ensure up-to-date and accurate representations of Canadian opinion on various issues, notably as they relate to Government of Canada priorities. 


PERIOD OF THE CONTRACT

The period of the contract will be for one (1) year with the possibility of two (2) additional one (1) year option periods. 


SOURCING

The requirement is subject to the provisions of the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT).

The Federal Contractors Program (FCP) for employment equity applies to this procurement; see Part 5 - Certifications, Part 7 - Resulting Contract Clauses and the annex titled Federal Contractors Program for Employment Equity - Certification.


EVALUATION CRITERIA 

MANDATORY EVALUATION CRITERIA

M.1  Fieldwork Manager

The bidder must identify one (1) fieldwork manager who is able to communicate with the project authority in English and one (1) fieldwork manager who is able to communicate with the project authority in French. The individual identified for each language can be the same person. The bidder must provide the curriculum vitae of the proposed fieldwork manager. The curriculum vitae should include: 

a) the candidate’s professional experience;
b) the candidate’s employment history, starting with the present (in months/years), and including a brief description of each role;
c) the candidate’s education, including the field of study, memberships, publications, certification and training;
d) the candidate’s language capabilities or proficiency for each of the two (2) official languages of Canada (i.e. English and French).


M.2  Fieldwork Manager- Sample Projects

The bidder must demonstrate the experience of each of the proposed fieldwork managers in the followingway. The bidder must submit two (2) quantitative telephone surveys that each fieldwork manager has produced and completed* in Canada in the two (2) years preceding the bid closing date. The samples submitted will be evaluated in the Point Rated TechnicalEvaluation R.4 - Fieldwork Manager - Sample Projects. Please use the sample project format in R.4 to submit sample projects.

*Completed is defined as when the final data was submitted to the client.

At least one (1) of the two (2) projects submitted must include a tracking telephone survey**, with multiple waves (minimum two (2)) in which a minimum of 500 respondents were contacted per wave.

**A tracking survey is defined as asking the same target population the same set of questions at different time intervals to measure changes in responses over time. The sample for each time interval (i.e. wave) does not need to consist of the same respondents.

At least one (1) of the two (2) projects submitted must be national*** in scope, and must demonstrate that a final sample is representative**** of the target population in terms of age, gender, and region/province, based on Statistics Canada data at the time of study. 

***National is defined as a project being delivered in at least four (4) regions of Canada. One (1) of these regions must be Quebec. The regions are: 
• British Columbia; 
• Prairies (Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba); 
• Ontario; 
• Quebec;
• Atlantic (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador); and
• The Territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut).

**** Representative is defined as a final sample proportion that is +/-2% of the population proportion.


M.3  Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractors

All fieldwork must be completed in Canada. The bidder must identify whether all fieldwork will be conducted with either: 

• in-house resources; 
• a sub-contractor; or 
• a combination of in-house resources and a sub-contractor. 

If a sub-contractor is involved, the same sub-contractor will be required to complete all projects for the duration of the contract unless authorized in writing by Public Works and Government Services Canada. 

In the case of the use of a sub-contractor, the bidder must provide: 

• the name ofthe sub-contractor; and
• the number of years in business.


M.4 Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractor - Project Samples

The bidder must submit a minimum of three (3) but no more than five (5) quantitative telephone surveys completed in Canada by the fieldwork firm / sub-contractor identified in M.3. At a minimum, one (1) project must be a tracking survey, with at least two (2) waves in which a minimum of 500 respondents were contacted per wave. The samples will be evaluated in the Point Rated Technical Evaluation R.5 - Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractor’s Experience.


M.5 Financial Proposal / Basis of Payment 

The bidder must provide rates for the initial contract period and each of the option periods in accordance with Annex “B2” - Basis of Payment, Pricing - Quantitative Surveys. 


POINT RATED EVALUATION CRITERIA

R.1:  Understanding the Requirement 

The bidder should provide a narrative summary that reflects their understanding of the Statement of Work. Simply repeating the Statement of Work, in whole or in part, does not indicate an understanding of the project’s aims and objectives or the ability to carry it out.


R.2: Methodology 

The bidder should provide a complete description of the methodology and research procedures,including data collection techniques; bidders should demonstrate how they will achieve the completions required by describing the size of the eligible population, the methodology by which they will locate eligible respondents, the expected response rates, and the procedures they intend to follow to obtain the required number of completions. In the evaluation of bidders’ proposals, points will be allocated to sampling and method to locate telephone numbers of eligible respondents.

Section I: Methodology and Research Procedures 
The degree to which the bidder describes the methodology, including the size of the eligible population, the methodology by which they will locate eligible respondents, the expected response rates, and the procedures they intend to follow to obtain the required number of completions.

Section II: Data Collection Capability and Quality Control
The degree to which the bidder describes the data collection capability and all quality control mechanisms that will be in place to ensure the reliability and validity of the results.

Section III: Addressing Issues and Challenges
The degree to which the bidder describes the rationale for the approach and a description of potential challenges/problems that could arise and how each will be addressed. 

This should include margin of error, non-response bias, urban/rural/provincial /… sampling issues, extrapolation to the population, etc.


R.3:  Fieldwork Manager - Qualifications 

The curriculum vitae of each fieldwork manager proposed in M.1 will be evaluated as follows: 

a) Academic qualifications / training / certifications / publications / awards and memberships relevant to public opinion research fieldwork management, including communication of survey pre-test and results. 

*Relevant = specialization/major in disciplines such as: social sciences, economics, and statistics.

b) Work experience -the bidder should provide the total number of years of relevant experience for each proposed fieldwork manager.

If more than one (1) fieldwork manager is included, the points will be averaged across all of them. However, the proposed resources that do not meet the minimum points will not be named in the contract.


R.4: Fieldwork Manager -Sample Projects

Thetwo (2) projects submitted under mandatory requirement M.2 will be evaluated under this point rated evaluation. Bidders are requested to use the following PROJECT SAMPLE FORMAT for each project submitted: 

Projects can include any target audience (e.g. Indigenous, ethno-cultural groups, seniors, youth, general population, etc), as long as the project was conducted in Canada with Canadians.

PROJECT SAMPLE FORMAT 

SECTION I: BACKGROUND INFORMATION (5 points)
Project Title:
Client Name:
Delivery Dates of Final Data/Report:
Fieldwork Location(s):
Sample Size per Wave:

Attestation: The bidder should submit a brief attestation of performance signed by the client for each project submitted. The attestations should clearly reference the specific project and state that the work was conducted to the satisfaction of the client. A client attestation template is included as Appendix “G”. 

SECTION II: PROJECT BACKGROUND 
Describe your client's requirement, challenge, or opportunity and what your company was hired to do. Include a description of the product/service/social issue and the target audience(s).

SECTION III: METHODOLOGY 
Provide a summary of the methodology and describe how it responded to your client's objectives. 

If more than one (1) fieldwork manager is included, the points will be averaged across all of them. However, the proposed resources that do not meet the minimum points will not be named in the contract.


R.5: Fieldwork Firm / Sub-Contractors - Experience 

The bidder should identify and describe in detail a minimum of three (3) but no more than five (5) quantitative telephone surveys completed in Canada by the fieldwork firm / sub-contractors identified in M.3. Each project will have been completed in Canada with a minimum of one thousand (1000) survey completions using random digit dialing and involving a minimum survey duration of five (5) minutes. The projects cited in M.2 and M.4 can be resubmitted for this rated criterion provided they meet all the elements required in R.5. Relevant projects conducted for clients in or outside the Government of Canada will be given equal weight in the evaluation process. 

Projects can include any target audience (e.g. Indigenous, ethno cultural groups, seniors, youth, general population, etc.), as long as the project was conducted in Canada with Canadians.

The bidder should use the following layout to describe each project: 

• Project title; 
• Fieldwork start and end dates (Month/Year). For tracking projects, this should include the start and end dates of each wave; 
• Client name and telephone number; 
• Methodology including: 
o the number of survey completions and characteristics of respondents; 
o questionnaire duration; 
o sample design; and 
o the number of overall completions, and completions per wave.

Project experience will be evaluated based on the following criteria: 

a) Recency of the Project: The project fieldwork was completed in the two (2) years preceding the bid closing dateby the bidder’s proposed fieldwork firm.  

b) Sample Size and Questionnaire Duration: There were a) at least one thousand (1000) survey completions using probability sampling and b) involving minimum survey duration of at least five (5) minutes.  

c) Sampling Distribution: a) national in scope and  b) the final sample is representative of the target population by region/province  


BASIS OF SELECTION

Highest Combined Rating of Technical Merit and Price

1. To be declared responsive, a bid must: 

a. comply with all the requirements of the bid solicitation; and

b. meet all mandatory criteria; and

c. obtain the required minimum points specified for each criterion for the technical evaluation, and 

d. obtain the required minimumof 735 points overall for the technical evaluation criteria which are subject to point rating. The rating is performed on a scale of 1050 points. 

2. Bids not meeting (a) or (b) or (c) and (d) will be declared non-responsive. 

3. The selection will be based on the highest responsive combined rating of technical merit and price. The ratio will be 60% for the technical merit and 40% for the price. 

4. To establish the technical merit score, the overall technical score for each responsive bid will be determined as follows: total number of points obtained / maximum number of points available multiplied by the ratio of 60%.

5. To establish the pricing score, each firm price or rate will be prorated against the lowest firm price or rate for eachindividual category of service. The ratio of 40 % will be divided against the five main category services as follows:

36/40 - Firm Contract Price for Initial and Option Periods (10 minute interview completions)
1/40 - Firm Rate for 11 minutes of interview completions (Landline)
1/40 - Firm Rate for 11 minutes of interview completions (Cell-phone Only)
1/40 - Firm Rate for 12 minutes of interview completions (Landline)
1/40 - Firm Rate for 12 minutes of interview completions (Cell-phone Only)

6. For each responsive bid, the technical merit score and the pricing score will be added to determine its combined rating. 

7. Neither the responsive bid obtaining the highest technical score nor the one with the lowest evaluated price will necessarily be accepted. The responsive bid with the highest combined rating of technical merit and price will be recommended for award of a contract. 


All inquiries regarding aspects of this request for proposal should be e-mailed to: 
Paola.Amaral@pwgsc-tpsgc.gc.ca

All solicitation documents must be obtained through http://buyandsell.gc.ca 


Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

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

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.