This procurement is subject to the provisions of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement, the Atlantic Procurement Agreement and the Quebec-New Brunswick Procurement Agreement.
CONTRACT OF SUPPLY
To be delivered as and when required for the period indicated upon receipt of an official Release under Contract. The Province of N.B. does not guarantee that any amount, make, model, brand, item, part or service will be purchased.
No totals required.
For ease of response an MS document has been posted on the New Brunswick Opportunities Network(NBON)to be filled in and returned with your bid document.
For those companies that receive bid documents from MERX you will need to register on the NBON system at www.gnb.ca/tenders to download the MS document. You are however, cautioned not to make any changes to our wording or your response may be rejected.
Should you have any trouble registering on the system please contact the HELP Line at 1-800-561-1422 in Canada or 506-444-5636 outside Canada.
EDUCATIONAL AND SERVICES
***** Amendment # 3 *****
This document has been amended to answer the following vendor questions. No further questions will be accepted. All other information remains the same.
Q1. It was referenced in Appendix A 3.1 and you did publish an Amendment but I need to confirm - is this RFP open to Vendors specifically located in the US and the information and data processing (including all training materials, emails, phishing E-mail training) is all sent from the US with NO servers located in Canada?
R1. The law and policy may have exceptions based on the type of data stored and under what circumstances. Without knowing these specific details and in turn getting an opinion from the AG's office the requirement in Appendix A, section 3.1 stands as mandatory requirement.
Q2. In regards to materials that comply with the Officials Languages act, the majority of the training materials are English only but they do have a percentage available in either French Canadian and/or Parisian French and since NOT all materials are available in English or French will this material be considered compliant?
R2. As per section 8.1 of Appendix A, the solution proposed by the vendor must be fully bilingual.
***** Amendment # 2 *****
This document has been amended to answer vendor questions. Please see attachment titled "Amendment # 2". No requests for extensions to the closing date will be accepted. All other information remains the same.
***** Amendment # 1 *****
This document has been amended to answer the following vendor question. All other information remains the same.
Q1. Related to requirement section 3.1 . GNB is requesting Software as a Service (cloud based) solution that stores and processes data (including back-up tapes and archives) in Canada.
Since many modern cloud services leverage tapeless backup and archive solutions can GNB remove the reference to tapes in this requirement?
R1. No, we will not remove the reference to tapes. The system doesn't have to use back-up tapes, if they do, they need to be stored in Canada.
This is a tender notice only. In order to submit a bid, you must obtain official tender documents from the New Brunswick Opportunities Network, another authorized tendering service or as indicated in the tender notice.
RETURN TO:
Note change to mailing address:
Central Tendering Branch
Fredericton Regional Centre
Suite 2300, 300 St. Mary's Street,
Fredericton, N.B.
E3A 2S4
Fax: (506) 444-4200
Public opening of bids will take place on closing day at 14:00 Atlantic Time, in Fredericton Regional Centre, Suite 2300, 300 St. Mary's Street, Fredericton, N.B. E3A 2S4.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All bids must be stated in Canadian Funds.
All tenders must be F.O.B. destination, freight prepaid.
Sales taxes should not be included in the unit, extended or total prices.
This Invitation is being conducted under the provisions of the Procurement Act and Regulation as of the date of the issuance of the Invitation. Bidders may obtain a copy of the Act and Regulation on-line free of charge Procurement Act, Regulation or a paper copy may be purchased from the Queen's Printer, Province of N.B., P.O. Box 6000,Fredericton, N.B. E3B 5H1.
All suppliers engaged to deliver services on behalf of the Government of New Brunswick must ensure compliance with the
Official Languages Act in the delivery of those services. For more information, please refer to the
Official Languages Act.
QUESTIONS:
Written questions relating to this opportunity may be submitted to the address provided below via email by clicking on Questions. Please be sure to include the solicitation/tender number in the subject line.
EMAIL ADDRESS: bidquestionssoumissions@snb.ca
NOTE:
This email account is strictly for the receipt of questions on open opportunities. This email is not for the submission of bids.
The Atlantic Provinces Standard Terms & Conditions for Goods and Services apply to this procurement and are considered to be incorporated into this document. By submitting a bid, you agree and accept these terms and conditions. Current "Atlantic Provinces Standard Terms and Conditions" are available on the New Brunswick Opportunities Network, the Council of Atlantic Premiers' Website or from an authorized service provider.
Under Canadian law (and international agreements), your Bid must arrive separately and independently, without conspiracy, collusion or fraud; see http://www.competitionbureau.gc.ca/eic/site/cb-bc.nsf/eng/home for further information.
A bidder must obtain official bid documents from a distribution service, authorized by the Minister of Service New Brunswick, in order to submit a bid. The current authorized distribution services are the
New Brunswick Opportunities Network (NBON) (operated by Service New Brunswick, Province of NB),
BIDS (operated by Tendering Publications Ltd.) and
MERX (operated by Mediagrif Interactive Technologies). Failure to submit the official bid documents or provide proof that the
official bid documents were properly obtained will result in rejection of the bid. In order to facilitate the evaluation process, Bidders are requested to respond in the same format as the official bid documents.
Where the estimated value of the goods or services to be procured is below
the lowest applicable threshold value of any relevant trade agreement, Service New Brunswick reserves the right to give preferential treatment to a prospective supplier from New Brunswick or the Atlantic Region. Should this right be exercised, the following order of priority will apply: a) firstly, New Brunswick manufacturers if the goods to be procured are manufactured in New Brunswick; b) secondly, New Brunswick vendors; and c) thirdly, Atlantic Suppliers. The preference will be applied based
on the price differential
between the lowest acceptable bid and the bid receiving preferential treatment. Unless otherwise indicated, there shall be no limit on the price differential under which a preference may be applied. The decision to apply a preference will be at the sole discretion of Service New Brunswick.
All discounts quoted will be considered to be without limitations.
Payment of invoices is the responsibility of the department or organization to whom the goods are shipped or services are supplied.
Award of contracts: no contract shall be awarded and no payment shall be made to a vendor unless authorized by the Minister or his delegates. The Minister may make an award to the preferred vendor conditional on the negotiation and acceptance of a detailed contract between the Province and the vendor. In such cases, should the detailed contract negotiations not be completed in a reasonable period of time, the Province reserves the right to discontinue negotiations with the vendor and
subsequently enter into negotiations with the second preferred vendor.
No right or duty, in whole or in part, of the vendor under a contract issued may be assigned or delegated without the prior consent of the Strategic Procurement Branch.
Unless the Strategic Procurement Branch has determined otherwise prior to tender closing, all prices must be extended and totaled.
The province of New Brunswick reserves the right to negotiate pricing, value added and other savings opportunities with the successful proponent at time of award and throughout the contract.
Pay Equity
Does your organization have 50 or more employees?
The Government of New Brunswick is committed to encouraging and incentivizing the adoption of pay equity by employers doing business with government.
Prior to the award of procurements for goods and services valued over $1,000,000, suppliers, with fifty (50) or more employees will be required to complete the Pay Equity Learning Module developed by the Women's Equality Branch. Suppliers should provide a copy of their certificate of completion with their bid submission.
To complete the online module and obtain your certificate, please visit www.gnb.ca/payequity. For questions, please contact the Pay Equity Bureau toll free: (877) 253-0266 or by Email: peb-bes@gnb.ca.
All Suppliers engaged to deliver goods or services to the Government of New Brunswick must ensure compliance with the Designated Materials Regulation in the provision or delivery of those goods obligated under that Regulation. Please refer to
Recycle NB's website and the
Designated Materials Regulation for specifics.
Direct Deposit
The Province of New Brunswick is now using Direct Deposit as the standard method of issuing payments. Suppliers are required to provide bank account information and an email address for the notice of remittance. Please send the completed Direct Deposit Form to Service New Brunswick (e-mail address and mailing address are indicated on the form).
Please click on the link below to view the Direct Deposit Form.
http://www2.gnb.ca/content/dam/gnb/Departments/gs-sg/pdf/Procurement/DirectDepositVirementDirect.pdf
Solicitation documents will be provided in either of the Province of New Brunswick's two official languages; English or French upon request.
