High-resolution optical web-based satellite imagery data products

Trade Agreement: Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)
Tendering Procedures: Generally only one firm has been invited to bid
Non-Competitive Procurement Strategy: Exclusive Rights
Comprehensive Land Claim Agreement: No
Vendor Name and Address: 
MAXAR INTELLIGENCE INC.
1300 W. 120th Avenue
Westminster Colorado
United States
80234
Nature of Requirements: 

23240-220685/B
Friesen, Manon
E-mail: manon.friesen@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca


ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE (ACAN)
Nature of Requirement: ACAN FOR THE DEPARTMENT OF NATURAL RESOURCES CANADA (NRCan) - Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services to access MAXAR technologies SecureWatch Satellite Imagery Data Catalogue

Delivery Date Required:  March 30, 2022

1. Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) 
An ACAN 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 ACAN, on or before the closing date stated in the ACAN, the contracting officer may then proceed with the award to the pre-identified supplier. 

2. Definition of the requirement
You are hereby notified that on behalf of the Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) intends to enter into a sole source contract with MAXAR INTELLIGENCE INC., located at 1300 W 120th Avenue Westminster, Colorado, for the purchase of an Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services of SecureWatch Satellite Imagery to access a commercial (“off the shelf”) high-resolution optical web-based satellite imagery data products owned by MAXAR technologies. The estimated value of the contract is $7,630,200.00 CAD including options, before applicable taxes for the purchase of an Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services of SecureWatch Satellite Imagery.
Over the last several years, a collection of National Master Standing Offers (NMSOs) has been established to facilitate the licensing of satellite imagery to the Government of Canada (GoC). The multiple National Master Standing Offers (NMSOs) for Commercial Satellite Imagery Products or Data (E60SQ-120001/H) (https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-19-00896853) is still active. These NMSOs have been used to acquire satellite imagery with a significant coverage of Canada’s landmass; however these NMSOs currently do not provide continuous and direct access to high volume of imagery data. 
High-resolution optical earth observation data constitute a vital component of the national geospatial infrastructure, providing well-established, direct benefits to society and the economy. Sat Imagery is the critical source data for large-scale mapping as it is used to locate key land surface features (urban areas, transport/energy networks, lakes and rivers, buildings) that gives context to other geo-located information.  
The estimated project is for a period of one year with two optional additional periods of one year each. To support their requirement, NRCan will require Web Support Services, Technical Support Services as well as supporting documentation. The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services will provide up-to-date and accurate imagery that will lead to a vast array of applications aligned with Government’s priorities, including flood mapping, renewable energy and adaption to climate change.

3. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities their capabilities to meet all the mandatory requirements listed under Annex A Statement of Requirement (see attached).

4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement: 
o Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA)

5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier
The Department of Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has issued a Request for Information (RFI) on High Resolution Imagery Acquisition (23240-161141/A): https://buyandsell.gc.ca/procurement-data/tender-notice/PW-16-00729541 that concluded in September 2019. 
From responses received from the private industry, the supplier mentioned in section 11 below is the only known supplier that meets the mandatory criteria set out in section 3 above and owns the IP and the rights to SecureWatch Satellite Imagery. 

6. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s)
The following exception to the Government Contracts Regulations is invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work".

7. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons
The following exclusion(s) and/or limited tendering reasons are invoked under the :
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA) - Article(s) b. ii. the protection of patents, copyrights or other exclusive rights;

8. Ownership of Intellectual Property
Ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract will vest in the Contractor.

9. Period of the proposed contract or delivery date
The proposed contract is for a period of one year, from 2022-03-30 to 2023-03-29. The contract will also include an option for two additional one-year period. 

10. Cost estimate of the proposed contract
The estimated value of the contract, including option(s), is $7,630,200.00 CAD (GST/HST extra).  

11. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier
MAXAR INTELLIGENCE INC.
1300 W. 120th Avenue
Westminster, Colorado
80234 
United States

12. 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 ACAN 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.

13. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities
The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is March 21, 2022 at 2:00 p.m. EDST.

14. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities
Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:
Name:   Manon Friesen
Title:  Supply Team Leader, Commodity Specialist
        Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
        Acquisitions Branch
        Commercial and Consumer Products Directorate - PI Division
E-mail: manon.friesen@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca


ANNEX A - STATEMENT OF REQUIREMENT (revised)

1 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Data Specifications 

1.1 Electromagnetic (EM) Spectrum Coverage
The Imagery Data must be captured using an Imagery Electromagnetic Spectrum offering a minimum of four (4) multi-spectral bands and a one (1) panchromatic band that cover the visible spectrum around the following wavelength ranges:
1) a Blue band, 430…450-510..550 nm
2) a Green band, 490..530-580..610 nm
3) a Red band, 600..660-670..720 nm
4) a Near Infrared (NIR) band, 740..850-880..950 nm
5) a Panchromatic band, 400..500-650..950 nm

The Imagery Data from all spectral bands must be captured in synchronous mode, meaning that all images must be acquired at the same time under the same conditions.

1.2 Ground Sample Distance
The Ground Sample Distance of the Imagery Data must be less than or equals to 50 centimetres (<= 0.5 m) for the Panchromatic band (5) at the nadir.

1.3 Cloud Cover
The cloud cover percentage must be less than or equals twenty percent (<= 20%).

1.4 Off-Nadir Look Angle
The off-nadir look angle must be less than or equals to 25 degrees.

1.5 Ownership of the Satellite Constellation
The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide access to Imagery Data captured by the company owning and operating the proposed Satellite Constellation.


2 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Product Specifications

2.1 Orthorectified Imagery Products
The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide access to the following two (2) distinct types of Orthorectified Imagery Product:
a) a product being unsharpened; and
b) a product generated from a pan-sharpening process.

2.2 Spatial Resolution
The Imagery Products must have a pixel spacing less than or equals to 50 centimetres (<= 0.5 m). 

The spatial resolution must be available for at least the Panchromatic band (5) for unsharpened products. 

The spatial resolution must be available for all the Multi-spectral bands (1-4) for Imagery Products obtained as the result of a pan-sharpening process.
 
2.3 Radiometric Resolution
Pixel value in Imagery Products are Spectral radiance in units of W * sr-1 * m-2 * nm-1 or Digital Number (DN) with a radiometric resolution greater than or equals to 14 bits for unsharpened products and a radiometric resolution greater than or equals to 8 bits for pan-sharpened products.

2.4 Absolute Positional (Geometric) Accuracy
The Absolute Horizontal Positional Accuracy inside off-nadir range of +/- 25 must be less or equals to 5.0 metres (CE90) for Mosaic Imagery Products and less or equals to 8.4 metres (CE90) for Strip imagery Products. 

2.5 Data Format
The mandatory Data Format for all Imagery Products is GeoTIFF v.1.1 (http://docs.opengeospatial.org/is/19-008r4/19-008r4.html). 

2.6 Data Alignment between Spectral bands
The Imagery Products from a common Imagery Bundle should be co-registrated. This means that all Multi-Spectral bands should share the same origin, pixel size and shape (width, height). 

3 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Archive Catalogue

3.1 Initial Catalogue Coverage
The Imagery Archive Catalogue available through the Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must include Imagery Data acquired since January 1st 2016, covering 98% of the Canadian landmass with compliant Imagery Data (1), including cloud cover restriction.

3.2 Minimal Update Requirements
The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide access to new compliant Imagery Data (1) collected over at least 50% of the Canadian landmass on an annual basis. The new collected Imagery Data must be made available in the Imagery Archive Catalogue on a continuous basis by the company owning and operating the satellite constellation.

 
4 Mandatory Requirements related to the Imagery Web Platform (IWP) 

The Entity-wide Imagery Subscription Services must provide an externally hosted Imagery Web Platform (IWP) supporting discovery and allowing access to the Imagery Products. 

The Imagery Web Platform (IWP) must be an existing commercially available system, which can be configured, if required, but must be fully functional and operational at contract award. The IWP must include the following functionalities:

4.1 Imagery Data Search
The Imagery Web Platform must allow authenticated user to perform search using non-spatial and spatial criteria.

4.1.1 Non-spatial search criteria
The Non-spatial search criteria must allow defining all of the following mandatory search filters:
a) The list of Satellite/Constellation Sensors (if more than one available);
b) The Image acquisition date (single or range);
c) The Maximum Cloud Cover percentage; and
d) The Maximum Off-nadir Look Angle.

4.1.2 Spatial search criteria
The Spatial search criteria must allow defining at least one (1) of the following method:
a) Bounding box resulting from Pan and Zoom operations from a Map interface including relevant base map information
b) Input of Spatial extent using geographic coordinates (longitude/latitude)
c) Drawing of a polygon from a Map interface including relevant base map information
d) Geolocation or gazetteer service
e) Intersection with uploaded geometries (point, line or polygon) in a supported vector format

4.2 Imagery Data Discovery

4.2.1 Search Results Metadata Fields

The IWP must present search results including the following mandatory metadata fields:
a) Satellite or constellation and Sensor name(s);
b) Acquisition Time (UTC) (Begin/End);
c) Image Corner Coordinates including upper left, lower left, upper right, lower right expressed in geographical or projected coordinates with the projection name and/or the ability to preview the image footprint on over a base map information or a web imagery visualization service;
d) Ground sample distance / Spatial resolution / Pixel spacing;
e) Spectral band(s) available, and
f) Link to an Image Preview (thumbnail and/or overview) (see Section 4.2.2).

4.2.2 Image Overview
The IWP must include an Image Overview.

The Image Overview represents a reduced resolution of the Image Product that can be displayed in a Web Browser and which is available in image formats supported natively by Web browsers (such as image/png or image/jpg). 

4.3 Imagery Product Ordering
The IWP must allow authenticated users to select an Imagery Product to trigger a direct download or a data packaging process. 

4.4 Imagery Product Download
The IWP must allow authenticated users to transfer the Imagery Product from their secured remote location to the NRCan network. 

The data transfer must be executed over at least one of the following IETF standards:
a) HTTP/HTTPS compliant with IETF RFC1945, which is HTTP/1.0 or IETF RFC2616 (or any superseding RFC), which is HTTP/1.1
b) FTP compliant with IETF RFC959, which is the current FTP protocol (or any superseding RFC)

Delivery Date: Above-mentioned

You are hereby notified that the government intends to negotiate with one firm only as identified above. Should you have any questions concerning this requirement, contact the contracting officer identified above.

An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows departments and agencies to post a notice, for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that it intends to award a good, service or construction contract to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in the ACAN, the contracting authority may then proceed with the award.  However, should a Statement of Capabilities be found to meet the requirements set out in the ACAN, then the contracting authority will proceed to a full tendering process.

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 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.

The PWGSC file number, the contracting officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the outside of the envelope in block letters or, in the case of a facsimile transmission, on the covering page.

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

Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.