Advance Contract Award Notice
Title: Ensuring maintainability, development, testing, and knowledge transfer of the Lobbyists Registration System (LRS)
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 work requirements
The Office of the Commissioner of Lobbying (OCL) has a requirement for the provision of the services of a Programmer/Software Developer Level 3 and a Project Manager Level 3 for the continued maintenance, development, testing, and knowledge transfer to OCL IT staff of its Lobbyists Registration System (LRS).
The work required will provide a more accessible, up-to-date, user-friendly, secure LRS and adequate knowledge transfer in order to meet the OCL’s legal obligation to foster compliance with the Lobbying Act to increase transparency on who is engaged in lobbying activities to Canadians.
The work will involve the following:
2.1 Programmer/Software Developer Level 3, on a full-time basis, must provide but not limited to:
2.1.1 Maintenance of the LRS and related systems:
• Apply bug and data fixes in production as needed;
• Maintain/update de LRS database and search engine;
• Manage/update LRS source code repository;
• Refactor the LRS source code and its components/dependencies; and
• Provide knowledge transfer, coaching, support and training to OCL IT staff on these tasks.
2.1.2 Development and deployment preparation of the LRS:
• Develop, enhance, and implement improvements to various features as required;
• Recommend new technologies or integrate existing libraries within the LRS environment;
• Document ongoing changes/fixes to the production environment; and
• Provide knowledge transfer, coaching, support and training to OCL IT staff on these tasks.
2.1.3 Other related deliverables:
• Provide guidance on all development and production environments and related technologies;
• Provide continuous knowledge transfer, coaching, support, and training to OCL IT staff on development environments, LRS maintenance activities, and code;
• Provide guidance and support to the OCL Senior IT Developer and IT Developer on various development projects with regard to the LRS and its related systems based on requirements;
• Create, provide guidance, assistance and training on the creation of custom reports from the LRS database;
• Update documentation of the application to facilitate future development and maintenance; and
• Assist with the integration of other systems to the LRS application.
2.2 Project Manager, on a part-time basis, must provide but not limited to:
• On-going mentoring of OCL IT staff;
• Knowledge transfer, coaching, support and training of OCL IT staff with regard to LRS architecture, maintenance, development and testing procedures, including modifications related to the refactoring of the source code and its components/dependencies;
• Provide advice and guidance of LRS future work/enhancements with regard to planning, implementation and deployment procedures;
• Provide guidance on requirements gathering and presenting solutions; and
• Continued quality delivery of new development features and maintenance performed on the LRS.
3. 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:
3.1 Programmer/Software Developer Level 3
M1: Experience acting in a main/lead role conducting 5 successful Java application implementations similar in size, scope and complexity;
M2: A minimum of 10 years experience as a Programmer/Software Developer performing requirements analysis, web application design, and web application development with Java Standard Edition 1.7 or greater and Java Enterprise Edition 1.3 or greater:
M3: A minimum of 10 years experience as a Programmer/Software Developer developing and implementing web applications using JSP, XML, JavaScript, HTML, and CSS;
M4: A minimum of 10 years experience developing web applications using Spring Framework and sub frameworks Spring MVC, Spring Security, and Spring Web Flow;
M5: A minimum of 10 years experience developing web applications using Hibernate Object/Relational Mapping (ORM) and database persistence;
M6: A minimum of 10 years experience as a Programmer/Software Developer using SQL to perform CRUD operations on a RDBMS, such as Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, etc;
M7: A minimum of 4 years experience working with Microsoft SQL Server;
M8: A minimum of 10 years experience working with and implementing Enterprise Search Solutions including parametric indexes;
M9: A minimum of 10 years experience designing processes for building and populating search indexes;
M10: A minimum of 10 years experience implementing and populating search indexes by extracting and importing data from database, file systems, and website content;
M11: A minimum of 4 years experience working with Apache Solr enterprise search platform, including faceted search;
M12: A minimum of 4 years experience working with Apache Solr API for updating Solr collections in Java applications:
M13: A minimum of 4 years experience architecting and developing custom Solr plugins;
M14: Experience in creating custom reports where complex database queries;
M15: Experience in configuring and maintaining system integration software tools within a development environment;
M16: In depth knowledge of systems architecture, business processes, and operational procedures; and
A1: Knowledge of the current LRS architecture will be considered an asset.
3.2 Project Manager Level 3
M1: A minimum of 10 years experience assigning, managing and monitoring development work tasks associated to IT projects through the use of an issue tracking application (software development tool);
M2: A minimum of 10 years experience creating and coordinating work plans and deployment schedules for application development projects;
M3: A minimum of 10 years experience in business and systems analysis related to application development and design;
M4: A minimum of 10 years experience in managing application development work deliverables within a specified schedule and budget;
M5: A minimum of 10 years experience in providing ongoing detailed status and/or project status reports during application development;
M6: A minimum of 10 years experience working with a multidisciplinary IT team to coordinate and assign all work requirements to appropriate resources;
M7: A minimum of 10 years experience in defining business requirements required through legislation;
A1: Experience in application development projects related to Lobbying legislation will be considered an asset; and
A2: Knowledge of the current LRS project will be considered an asset.
The proposed resources must have a valid security clearance at the “RELIABILITY” level. The OCL will not delay the award of any contract to allow bidders to obtained the required clearance.
4. Applicability of the trade agreement(s) to the procurement
This procurement is subject to the following trade agreement(s):
Canadian Free Trade Agreement (CFTA), World Trade Organization – Agreement on Government Procurement (WTO-AGP), Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), Canada-Chile Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA), Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement, Canada-Honduras Free Trade Agreement, Canada-Korea Free Trade Agreement, Canada-Panama Free Trade Agreement, Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement (CPFTA), Canada-Ukraine Free Trade Agreement (CUFTA), Canada-United Kingdom Trade Continuity Agreement.
5. Justification for the Pre-Identified Supplier
The OCL is responsible for capturing and disseminating all lobbying activities conducted by lobbyists within the federal jurisdiction under the Lobbying Act. The LRS, which contains and makes public the registration information disclosed by lobbyists, is one of the primary applications that enables the OCL to fulfill tis obligations to the public. It is essential that the OCL ensures on-going maintenance and development of the LRS.
The work required will provide a more accessible, up-to-date, user-friendly, and secure LRS in order to meet the OCL’s legal obligation to foster compliance with the Lobbying Act to increase transparency on who is engaged in lobbying activities to Canadians.
Both pre-selected resources have proprietary technical knowledge of the LRS. This knowledge is critical to making recommendations on improving the alignment, efficiency and optimization of the LRS. Given the nature of the LRS roadmap, we require both resources to assist, guide and support OCL IT staff to meet the LRS maintenance and development roadmap.
Both pre-selected resources have the most comprehensive knowledge of the LRS. This is required to mitigate the risks of the OCL to meet its legal obligation. Due to its complexity and importance, it is fundamental that the LRS is maintained by experts with knowledge and experience of the application. Current OCL IT Staff still require additional knowledge transfer, guidance and assistance from the pre-selected resources to ensure a thorough and effective handover of the LRS.
Both pre-selected resources have more than 10 years of experience with the LRS and have a long history of providing services to the Government of Canada. Since 2006, these resources have been involved with the design and development of the current version of the LRS.
Both pre-selected resources have comprehensive experience in system and technical architecture, including the proprietary knowledge of the LRS. It will also allow for systematic knowledge transfer mechanism and developing training modules, to facilitate future development of the LRS by the OCL IT staff.
6. 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”.
7. Ownership of Intellectual Property
Canada intends to retain ownership of any Foreground Intellectual Property arising out of the proposed contract on the basis that the main purpose of the contract is to generate knowledge and information for public dissemination.
8. Period of the proposed contract
The proposed contract is for a period of one-year June 14, 2025 to June 13, 2026 with two (2) one-year options, ending June 13, 2028.
9. Cost estimate of the proposed contract
The estimated value of the contract is $1,011,600 ($337,200 per year). (excluding HST).
10. Name and address of the pre-identified supplier
The purpose of the ACAN is to signal the OCL’s intention to award a contract for these services to:
LIKE 10 Inc., SoftMosis Inc. IN JOINT VENTURE
Wesley MacDonald
5700 - 100 King St. West
Toronto, ON M5X 1C7
11. Suppliers’ right to submit a statement of capabilities
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the 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.
12. Closing date for a submission of a statement of capabilities
The closing date and time for accepting statements of capabilities is May 8 at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
14. Inquiries and submission of statements of capabilities are to be directed to:
Steven Espey
A/Procurement Officer
Parole Board of Canada
Email: steven.espey@pbc-clcc.gc.ca
