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IC184903 – Questions and Answers
Q1. Corporate Mandatory Criteria M1 requires that we provide details for three (3) separate contracts
(Government of Canada department, agency, Crown corporation or Provincial Government) where
Testers were supplied on an as when required basis.
a. If one or more of the contracts resulted in only one Tester being called up, would that be
considered compliant? (Assuming the rest of the criteria was also met including value,
duration etc.)
b. Would Export Development Canada be considered a Government Agency?
A1.
a. The bidder must demonstrate that the contract cited is a multi-resource contract. We will accept a
multi-resource contract where only 1 resource was called up.
b. EDC will be accepted.
Q2. Would ISED consider for M1 the clients, below?
 City of Toronto
 Toronto Transit Commission
A2. ISED would not consider these organizations since they are municipal.
Q3. Annex B – Evaluation Criteria, Corporate Mandatory Criteria, M1
M1 requires bidders to provide evidence of instances where they have provided Tester resources through
TA based contracts. In many instances these roles are also tendered under similar TBIPS categories for
work that is essentially the same. Will the Crown accept responses to this requirement where bidders
provided Quality Assurance Specialist/Analysts through TA based contracts as well?
A3. Yes we will accept.
Q4. Page 4 – Section 1.2 Summary – item e indicates the Federal Contractors’ Program for Employment
Equity Certification is attached however the attachment appears to be missing. Can ISED please forward
a copy of the attachment.
A4. Please see the attachment: “ANNEX H - Federal Contractors Program for employment equity –
Certification”
Q5. Page 12 – Section 3.3 - Financial Bid indicates the total amount of Applicable Taxes must be shown
separately, however, Annex C – Basis of Payment does not provide a line item for taxes. Is it acceptable
to ISED for Bidders to add a Tax line to the Basis of Payment Annex?
A5. Yes, it is acceptable.
Q6. M1 requests examples of contracts with “department/agency/crown corporation or provincial
government corporate reference contracts.” Based on this definition will the crown confirm that it will
accept a not-for-profit agency funded primarily by all Ontario municipalities, and which is accountable to
the Province, municipalities and property taxpayers?
A6. Not-for-profit agencies will not be accepted.
Q7. "Please refer to page 36, Corporate Mandatory Criteria, M1 states "Each client contract cited must
have been on-going duration or have a completed duration of greater than one (1) year." Would the
Crown please consider reducing the duration of the references from "a completed duration of greater than
one (1) year" to "a completed duration of greater than six (6) months"? A six month duration would be
more in line with the stated minimum total contract value of $125,000.00 for a multiple resource contract."
A7. The criteria remains’ as is.
Q8. "Please refer to page 37, Corporate References, M1 which states "The Bidder must provide corporate
references for three (3) distinct and separate Government of Canada (GoC) client
department/agency/crown corporation or provincial government corporate reference contracts for Tester
resource requirements." An RFP was released today April 25, 2017 - Solicitation No.: IC185240 – TBIPS
– P.11 Quality Assurance Specialist/Analyst – Level 3, which is requesting only two (2) corporate
references. Would the Crown please consider reducing the amount of corporate references to two (2) or
please provide details as to why the level 3 position requires less references than a level 2 position?"
A8. This was the project authorities’ decision. The criteria remains’ as is.
Q9. "Please refer to page 38, M4 which states "The Bidder must provide two (2) client references for
separate Government of Canada (GoC) client department/agency/crown corporation or provincial
government contracts where the proposed resource was contracted as a Tester within the last five (5)
years." An RFP was released today April 25, 2017 - Solicitation No.: IC185240 – TBIPS – P.11 Quality
Assurance Specialist/Analyst – Level 3 where the Crown has noted: " In the event that the proposed
resource has been contracted to the same GoC organization within the last five (5) year period then two
(2) separate project references will be accepted from that organization." Would the crown consider
amending the RFP to include accepting two (2) separate project references from the same organization
where the resource was contracted as a Tester within the last five (5) years?"
A9. We will allow two separate project references from the same organization.
Q10. In regards to Rated Requirement PR1 “a)Multi-platform, multi-operating system environment,”
Would the client please remove the “multi-operating system” component as most common COTS and/or
JAVA applications do not run across multiple operating system environments. As written, this criteria is
highly restrictive to otherwise qualified candidates and limits the ability of vendors to provide high quality
and high value responses to this solicitation.
A10. The criteria remains’ as is.
Q11. Annex B – Evaluation Criteria: M1 (Corporate References), M2 (Previous ISED experience) and M4
(Client references) are the only 3 criteria in both the mandatory and point-rated criteria specifically
requesting client contact information at bid submission. Can ISED please confirm Bidders are not
required to provide client contact information for the remaining criteria until such time as ISED chooses
(if/when) to request further information during the evaluation phase.
A11. Client contact information is requested only for M1, M2 (if possible), and M4. No other client contact
information is needed for the bid submission.
Q12. With respect to Annex B – Evaluation Criteria, M4 (RFP pages 38-39) our proposed resource has
been contracted to the same GoC organization within the last five (5) year period for two (2) completely
separate projects. Each contract/project was initiated by separate and distinct business units. Would the
Crown consider accepting the required two (2) client references from one (1) GoC organization under
these circumstances?
A12. Yes we will accept.
Q13. Please refer to page 41, for both PR1 and PR3, the proposed resource requires experience on
multiple projects to achieve full points, each must have a duration of greater than 6 months. Would the
crown allow long term projects to be divided in 6-month increments. For example a 2 year project to be
considered as 4 projects?
A13. We would only allow a project to be divided if they had sub-projects (listed with duration and level of
effort) that had their own goals and directives, and not just a continuation of the same project. Therefore,
a 2 year project cannot be divided into 6 month increments just to meet the requirement.
Q14. In regards to RFP (IC184903), would the crown consider a one (1) week extension to the bid closing
date?
A14. No extension will be given.
Q15. Page 17 – Section 5.1 – Certifications Required with the Bid - Declaration of Convicted Offences:
The instructions on the Declaration Form state Bidders are to submit the form in a sealed envelope with
their bid submission, however this requirement is an electronic submission and the document becomes
Protected B once completed. Can ISED confirm how Bidders are to submit this information.
A15. Please see “IC184903 – RFP_Amendment 001.pdf”
Q16. Annex B – Evaluation Criteria, Corporate Mandatory Criteria, M1
M1 requires bidders to provide evidence of instances where they have provided Tester resources through
TA based contracts. In many instances these roles are also tendered under similar TBIPS categories for
work that is essentially the same. Will the Crown accept responses to this requirement where bidders
provided resources. such as Business Analysts, that performed similar tasks listed in the SOW.
A16. No
Q17. In addition to the question above, we respectfully ask the following question:
Annex B – Evaluation Criteria, Corporate Mandatory Criteria, M1
M1 requires bidders to provide evidence of instances where they have provided Tester resources through
TA based contracts. In many instances these roles are also tendered under similar TBIPS categories for
work that is essentially the same. Will the Crown accept responses to this requirement where bidders
provided resources, such as Project Manager, that performed similar tasks listed in the SOW.
A17. No