Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN)
Title: Proposal to Purchase Canadian Pesticide Usage Data for 2014 Growing Season with the option of purchasing Canadian pesticide usage data for the 2013 growing season.
Solicitation Number 1000169087
1. The Purpose and Explanation of an ACAN
An Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) allows Health Canada to post a notice for no less than fifteen (15) calendar days, indicating to the supplier community that a goods, services or construction contract will be awarded to a pre-identified contractor. If no other supplier submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities that meets the minimum requirements identified in the ACAN, the Contracting Authority may then proceed to award a contract to the pre-identified contractor.
The purpose of this proposal is to obtain pesticide usage information on Canadian cereal, grain, oilseed and pulse crops for the 2014 growing season with the option to purchase pesticide usage data for the 2013 growing season. Pesticide usage information includes use of pesticides by product and active ingredient obtained by survey of growers.
2. Rights of Suppliers
Suppliers who consider themselves fully qualified and available to provide the services or goods described in this ACAN may submit a Statement of Capabilities demonstrating how they meet the advertised requirement. This Statement of Capabilities must be provided via e-mail only to the contact person identified in Section 12 of the Notice on or before the closing date and time of the Notice. If the Bidder can clearly demonstrate they possess the required capabilities, the requirement will be opened to electronic or traditional bidding processes.
3. Proposed Contractor
Pesticide usage data:
Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc.
47 Bridle Path
Guelph, ON N1H 6H9
Canada
4. Definition of Requirements or Expected Results
The purpose of obtaining pesticide usage data and reports is to understand how pesticides are actually being used in Canada and to understand the seed industry in Canada. This information must be at a sufficient level of detail to allow the Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA) to carry out risk assessments on pesticides.
Data must provide information on the actual pesticide usage in Canada at a refined level such as by: sector (insecticides, herbicide, fungicide and seed treatment, etc.), crop group, crop, pesticide product, active ingredient and company. Variables should include the area treated, the tractor area, number of applications, application rate/ha, product volume (kg or L) and value (CAD), active ingredient volume (kg or L) and value (CAD) at the provincial level, regional level (e.g., Prairies, Central Canada, Atlantic region, etc.), or at a minimum at the national level for Canada. Additional information should include number of growers using the active ingredient or product.
Data should be presented in a searchable, filterable or queriable format that can be used to extract specific subsets of the data in MS Excel for further analysis and inclusion in presentations (e.g., PowerPoint).
5. Minimum Requirements
Any interested supplier must demonstrate by way of a Statement of Capabilities that it meets the following minimum requirements:
For pesticide usage data:
a) Data must be derived by a statistically valid survey of growers.
b) Data must be available at the regional or provincial level for Canada.
c) Data must include at a minimum the following: year surveyed, pesticide sector (insecticide, herbicide, fungicide and seed treatment), crop, crop area, product, active ingredient, base area treated (i.e., area treated with products/active ingredients by sector), number of treatments, area treated, product area treated (i.e., tractor area), product application rate, product price/ha, grower expenditures, pest targeted and number of growers using.
c) Data must be in a format able to provide subsets of data based upon query parameters.
d) Data providers must provide data output in MS Excel.
e) Data must provide pesticide usage information by product, by active ingredient and by company.
f) Data must be compatible for compilation with previously purchased data sets.
g) Provision of the data or report by March 31, 2015.
6. Reason for Non-Competitive Award
Annual investigation of potential providers of Canadian pesticide use data is conducted via internet searches, etc. As this is a niche market with a limited number of potential clients.
There are no data providers that provide identical services.
Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. is one of very few data providers of pesticide use data for Canada. None of the providers of Canadian pesticide use data produce equivalent products: the crops surveyed and the level of scope (provincial scale vs national scale) varies among data providers. Additionally each data provider offers unique products such as comprehensive reports, data summary tables, etc. that no other data providers issue. There are no equivalent pre-existing products available to provide a cost comparison.
Health Canada proposes to purchase pre-existing data from all known providers of Canadian pesticide use data to obtain the most comprehensive spectrum of pesticide use information as possible.
The only alternative to obtain equivalent information would be for Health Canada to requisition a new survey which would be much more costly and require a more involved and prolonged process.
Stratus Agri-Marketing is the only source of Canadian pesticide use data derived strictly from a survey of growers. All other sources of Canadian pesticide use data are “top down” polls. Top down surveys are polls of crop experts, university and provincial extension staff and crop experts as well as distributors, grower associations and some growers.
A grower level survey (such as Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. provides) allows for confidence intervals to be determined for the variables provided. Data are available on a provincial scale. This is a detailed data set which includes use information not available from other sources. Additionally this is the only source of Canadian pesticide use data available to cross reference with the “top down” surveys (i.e., Gfk Kynetec and Buckley and Associates) so as to compare accuracy of the data.
The Stratus apple data has been validated with the 2005 Statistics Canada survey for pesticide use and pest management practices. Cat. No. 21-601-M-No. 089. ISSN 1707-0368. The Stratus 2005 apple data when compared with the Statistics Canada Survey was the most precise and accurate data.
Purchasing the 2014 Stratus data would provide the PMRA with updated pesticide usage information more relevant to current pesticide use and their assessments. In Addition, it would provide the PMRA with access to 11 years of data for trend analysis.
Purchase of the “Base acres by brand” data will allow for further refinement of use information to be used in risk assessments. The base acres by brand data will provide more realistic estimates of the percentage of a given crop treated with an active ingredient. This refined level of information will also allow for the analysis of individual major uses (such as individual major crops. This will allow a better understanding of the composition of potential risk trends in pesticide use across Canada.
7. Applicable trade Agreements and Justification for Limited Tendering or the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business
This contract is subject to the following trade agreements:
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), Article 1016.2 (b) and AIT, Article 506.12 (b).
Article 1016.2(b) of NAFTA and Article 506.12 (b) of the AIT allows contracts to be directed to a particular firm when the products or services can be supplied only by a particular supplier and no reasonable alternative or substitute exists.
8. Ownership of Intellectual Property
Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. retains sole rights and ownership of the data. Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc. provides pesticide use data in the form of multi-client studies. Multi-client studies are performed when several clients contribute funds to a contractor to conduct a survey. Conducting multi-client studies greatly reduces the cost to each individual contributor. All contributors are provided access to the data while the contractor retains rights and ownership of the data including the right to provide access rights to additional parties. Health Canada is proposing to purchase access to pre-existing multi-client surveys.
The government of Canada, its officers, employees, designated agents and representatives are authorized to use the information solely for internal purposes. Publication or other release of limited individual citations is permitted as part of a wider report with the express written permission of Stratus Agri-Marketing Inc., with an appropriate source reference.
9. Period of the Proposed Contract
The contract period shall be from date of contract award until March 31, 2015, including options.
10. Estimated Value of the Proposed Contract
The total estimated value of the proposed contract for the 2014 data should not exceed $255,400 CAD with the option of purchasing 2013 data for an additional $178,800 CAD, including travel and living expenses (if applicable), and all applicable taxes.
11. Closing Date and Time
The Closing Date and Time for accepting Statements of Capabilities is 11th day of February, 2015, 14:00 p.m. EST.
12. Contact Person
All enquiries must be addressed by e-mail to:
Name: Catherine Stiletto
E-Mail: c••••••••@•••••.••.ca
