ADVANCE CONTRACT AWARD NOTICE
The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (“CATSA”) intends to extend its contract for its Boarding Pass Security System (“BPSS”), including for maintenance and support, additional development and enhancements to the BPSS. The purpose of this Advance Contract Award Notice (“ACAN”) is to signal CATSA’s intention to extend its contract with Brock Solutions Inc. 86 Ardelt Avenue, Kitchener, ON, N2C 2C9.
Before extending the contract, however, CATSA would like to provide other suppliers with the opportunity to demonstrate that they are capable of satisfying the Minimum Essential Requirements set out in this ACAN, by submitting a statement of capabilities during the fifteen (15) calendar day posting period.
If a potential supplier submits a statement of capabilities during the fifteen (15) calendar day posting period that meets the Minimum Essential Requirements set out in this ACAN, CATSA may cancel this ACAN.
If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a statement of capabilities meeting the Minimum Essential Requirements set out in this ACAN, CATSA intends to extend its contract with the pre-selected supplier named above.
Background
CATSA is a Crown corporation with headquarters in Ottawa, Ontario and is responsible for the delivery of consistent, effective and efficient screening of passengers and non-passengers in designated airports.
As required by the Canadian Aviation Security Regulations, CATSA is only to permit persons who have a document of entitlement to access sterile areas. Those regulations define a “Document of Entitlement” to include boarding passes issued to passengers by air carriers. Passengers holding a valid boarding pass therefore have the right to enter such sterile areas, but only after successful screening by CATSA. BPSS is used by CATSA to verify the validity of boarding passes including ensuring that duplicate boarding passes are not used by persons to access sterile areas. CATSA collects BPSS information pursuant to its mandate under Section 6 of the Canadian Air Transport Security Act to take actions, for the effective and efficient screening of persons (and their belongings) who access aircraft or sterile areas through screening points at airports.
BPSS, introduced in 2010, enables boarding passes to be electronically scanned at pre-board screening (“PBS”) checkpoints at BPSS-enabled airports to ensure their validity and detect fraudulent or duplicate passes. In addition to these security effectiveness benefits, BPSS has also enhanced security incident resolution and checkpoint performance monitoring. BPSS has become an instrumental tool for strategic decision-making and the daily management of CATSA’s operations across Canada.
CATSA requires the ongoing maintenance and support of BPSS including additional development and enhancements to stay current, as well as for security fixes, new versions, and functional enhancements as technical challenges arise. Not having an agreement in place would be a risk to CATSA’s effective and efficient operations.
The work for any non-incumbent supplier will involve the following high level activities:
- migration;
- testing;
- implementation of the solution (software and hardware) at the CATSA Test Facility and applicable airports;
- training;
- documentation;
- on-site support during start-up. Start up to be no later than March 15, 2023; and
- on-going support and maintenance for a period of at least ten (10) years.
The proposed contract extension is for a period of five years with an option to extend for an additional five years.
The estimated value of the contract extension with Brock, including the option periods, is $11,500,000.00 (GST/HST and PST extra).
Additional background information will be provided to any interested suppliers following submission and CATSA acceptance of the System and Vendor Certification, attached as Schedule “A” and the Confidentiality Agreement, attached as Schedule “B”.
Minimum Essential Requirements
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of submitting a statement of capabilities that it meets all of the Minimum Essential Requirements. The Minimum Essential Requirements will be provided to any interested supplier following submission and CATSA acceptance of the System and Vendor Certification, attached as Schedule “A” and the Confidentiality Agreement, attached as Schedule “B”.
Justification for the Pre-Selected Supplier
There are no other known suppliers that can provide an Off-the-Shelf solution and associated maintenance and support that is currently deployed for other customers, and is functionally equivalent to BPSS as set out in the Minimum Essential Requirements.
As the developer of CATSA’s current BPSS, Brock owns the intellectual property rights and therefore is the only supplier capable of providing the on-going support, maintenance and additional development for BPSS. CATSA’s current BPSS is far from the end of its useful life, is extremely stable and critical to CATSA’s operations. CATSA’s screening operations have become highly dependent on the functioning of BPSS.
Based on the foregoing CATSA has determined that only the identified supplier is capable of meeting CATSA’s Minimum Essential Requirements.
Limited Tendering
This requirement is not subject to Trade Agreements.
Statement of Capabilities
Suppliers that consider themselves fully qualified and who meet the Minimum Essential Requirements may submit a statement of capabilities in writing to the Procurement and Contracting Advisor identified in this ACAN on or before the closing date. The statement of capabilities must clearly demonstrate how the supplier meets the Minimum Essential Requirements.
Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.
CATSA may cancel this ACAN for any reason. If cancelled, the Advisor will post a notice on MERX advising of the cancellation.
CATSA retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.
Enquiries and Submission to CATSA of Schedule “A” (System and Vendor Certification) and Schedule “B” (Confidentiality Agreement) are to be submitted by email to:
procurementcontract@catsa.gc.ca
Closing Date
The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is [insert date and closing time, Ottawa local time]. Statements of capabilities are to be submitted by email to:
procurementcontract@catsa.gc.ca
