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. Background Information
The Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) introduced a remote sensing capability to conduct, wide area surveillance of selected areas of the Canadian land mass and littoral area to meet Department of National Defence (DND) and the Government of Canada operational requirements. This capability will be provided through the acquisition and processing of RADARSAT-2 satellite imagery within the Polar Epsilon system. This capability will augment the current active surveillance resources primarily comprised of other commercial sensors and Allied systems.
The DND RADARSAT Order Desk Operator (DRODO) is responsible for the ordering, processing, and exploitation of RADARSAT data products (and subsequent intelligence imagery products). They are also required to support all CAF units requesting these products, including their primary client; the Canadian Forces Joint Imagery Centre (CFJIC).
The DRODO is a critical component of DND’s Imagery Exploitation Capability which assists the CAF in maintaining situational awareness of the Canadian land mass and littoral and other operational areas.
The services are required only as long as the RADARSAT-2 (R2) space segment remains operational. R2 was launched in late 2007 with an initial estimated useful life of approximately eight (8) years. Since it has now surpassed its expected lifespan, it is not possible to accurately predict how much longer it will continue to function.
3. Definition of the requirement
The Contractor will be required to deliver professional services for the support of the capability from the Project Management Office (PMO) Polar Epsilon project upon written request from the technical authority. The services of the following resources are required:
a. Primary DND RADARSAT Order Desk Operator (DRODO)
b. Secondary DND RADARSAT Order Desk Operator (DRODO)
c. Lower Tier DND RADARSAT Operator - Replacement for Primary and Secondary DRODO.
The main tasks required from the resource include reporting through the Primary DRODO, Secondary DRODO and the Lower Tier DRODO RADARSAT Operator. General tasks include but are not limited to:
• Troubleshooting components;
• Restarting Software systems at the component and hardware level;
• Re-installation and configuration of RADARSAT -2 Specific Software applications;
• To provide advice to Canadian Forces intelligence and operational staff related to RADARSAT-2 commercial satellite imagery and the exploitation thereof in support of Canadian Forces operations;
• To verify that delivered data products comply with the specifications of the data products ordered, and store the data in a local storage system;
• Initiation of maintenance and help desk support calls; and
• Informing technical authorities and lifecycle management managers of systems status updates.
4. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a statement of capabilities that it meets the following requirements:
4.1 The supplier and its proposed personnel must be authorized by MDA Geospatial Services Inc. to use the RADARSAT-2 satellite system to provide the requested data products.
4.2 The supplier must demonstrate a minimum of twelve (12) consecutive months of experience under a single contract, within the last five (5) years from the closing date stated in the ACAN.
In order to demonstrate its experience, the interested supplier must provide a contract summary for a minimum of one (1) and a maximum of two (2) maintenance contract(s) meeting the above criteria as prime contractor on at least one (1) contract providing Scheduled and Corrective Maintenance on at least one (1) satellite ground system composed of a reception system, processor, archive, data exploitation and imagery products that receives satellite data, and must include, as a minimum:
a) The client organization;
b) The client contact information;
c) The contract title and number;
d) The start and end dates of the referenced maintenance contract (month and year);
e) A description of the contract scope, tasks, and deliverables; and
f) A description of the resource team, including their roles and responsibilities throughout the duration of the maintenance contract.
“Scheduled Maintenance” is defined as maintenance performed for the purpose of detecting or preventing problems. It is sometimes referenced to as Preventive Maintenance.
“Corrective Maintenance” is defined as maintenance necessitated by actual faults and failures.
“Satellite ground system” is defined as hardware and software that receives, processes, and distributes satellite data.
Service based contract(s) cited must have been for client(s) external to the interested supplier’s organization. The following service-based contract summaries will not be considered: any organization that is related to the interested supplier (e.g.: parent company or subsidiary of the interested supplier and the interested supplier’s internal clients).
4.3 The supplier must be able to provide personnel for the three DRODO roles (Primary, Secondary and Lower-tier) that individually meet the following qualifications:
a) Must have minimum five (5) years experience within the last ten (10) years from the closing date stated in the ACAN in Ordering satellite imagery products.
b) Must have minimum five (5) years experience within the last ten (10) years from the closing date stated in the ACAN in analyzing Intelligence Satellite Imagery.
c) Must have minimum five (5) years experience within the last ten (10) years from the closing date stated in the ACAN in mission planning for satellite data products
d) Must have minimum five (5) years experience within the last ten (10) years from the closing date stated in the ACAN in Deconfliction of requirements related to satellite data collection.
5. Applicability of the trade agreements to the procurement
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreements:
The World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP);
The Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP);
The Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA);
The Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA);
The Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA);
The Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CColFTA);
The Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement (CPanFTA);
The Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement (CHFTA);
The Canadian-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA);
The Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement (CKFTA);
The Canada–Ukraine Free Trade Agreement; and
The Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement.
6. Set-aside under the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business
N/A.
7. Comprehensive Land Claims Agreement(s)
N/A.
8. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier
MDA Geospatial Services Inc., as the Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) of the RADARSAT-2 satellite, possesses exclusive expertise, proprietary technology, and operational control necessary to meet the Department of National Defence's (DND) minimum essential requirements outlined in Section 4 for the DRODO project, making them the only known supplier capable of providing the required services.
9. Government Contracts Regulations Exception(s).
The following exception(s) to the Government Contracts Regulations is (are) invoked for this procurement under subsection 6(d) - "only one person is capable of performing the work".
10. Exclusions and/or Limited Tendering Reasons
N/A.
11. Ownership of Intellectual Property
The intention is for the Contractor to retain the ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the work of the proposed contract.
11. Period of the proposed contract
The contract date will be from 01 January 2025 to 31 December 2025. Three are one-year option periods.
12. Cost estimate of the proposed contract
The estimated value of the initial period of the contract is $62,821.60 (HST extra).
13. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier
MDA Geospatial Services Inc.
13800 Commerce Parkway
Richmond, British Columbia
V6V 2J3
14. 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.
15. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities.
The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is 27 December 2024 at 14:00 EST.
16. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities
Inquiries and statements of capabilities are to be directed to:
Rogelio Orsetti
Senior Procurement Officer
Department of National Defence
101 Colonel By Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0K2
DSvcsC4Contracting-DCSvcs4Contrats@forces.gc.ca
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 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 Department of National Defence file number, the contracting officer's name and the closing date of the ACAN must appear on the subject line of the email.
The Crown retains the right to negotiate with suppliers on any procurement.
Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.
