Untitled Document

HOUSE OF COMMONS

38th PARLIAMENT, 1st SESSION
(October 4, 2004 - )

Edited Hansard • Number 075

Monday, April 4, 2005

Questions Passed as Orders for Returns

Hon. Dominic LeBlanc (Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Government in the House of Commons, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, if Questions Nos. 61, 79, 83, 84, 88 and 89 could be made orders for returns, these returns would be tabled immediately.

The Acting Speaker (Mr. Marcel Proulx): Is that agreed?

Some hon. members: Agreed.

[Hansard Page 4637]

SESSIONAL PAPER #8555-381-88 TABLED WITH JOURNALS BRANCH
TRANSCRIBED BY GARRY BREITKREUZ’S OFFICE

Q-882 — February 17, 2005 — Mr. Breitkreuz (Yorkton—Melville) — With regard to the Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Canadian Firearms Registration System (CFRS) Alternate Services Delivery (ASD) contract that was eventually awarded to Team Centra (a consortium of CGI Group and BDP Business Data Services Limited) in 2002: (a) were bidders required to agree to pay a penalty of $30,000 per day for every day their system was not implemented after the Service Effective Date (SED) to defray costs of paying two vendors, E.D.S. of Canada Ltd. (EDS) and Team Centra, at the same time and, if so, was this clause or a similar penalty clause carried forward into the contractual agreement between Team Centra and the Crown; (b) what was the official Contract Notification Date (CND) as required by the RFP; (c) what was the exact contracted SED; (d) in accordance with the RFP requirement, how much has Team Centra paid to the Crown based on the contracted SED; (e) how much has the Crown paid to EDS, Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP since the original SED of the ASD contract with Team Centra; (f) what deliverables were provided by EDS in return for these payments; (g) what deliverables were provided by Team Centra in return for these payments; (h) is the anticipated overlap of the two systems (CFRS I and CFRS II) still in accordance with the requirement in the RFP; (i) was the intent of the RFP to ensure no payment was made to the “Systems Integrator” until the system was delivered and, if so, when was the system delivered and what was the ongoing monthly charge to the Crown from Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP and what was the purpose of these charges; (j) has the user acceptance testing taken place on the Team Centra Application Code; (k) what was the value of the EDS Change Request to incorporate Bill C-10A amendments into the CFRS I system and why was this request needed; (l) what is the estimated dollar value and revised end date for the contracts currently under review with Team Centra, CGI Group and EDS; (m) why was the interface with the Canadian Firearms Registry On-Line (CFRO) considered a change request to the original Team Centra contract if it was expressly stated as a mandatory requirement for all bidders; (n) what was the value of the contract amendment, if any, of the Team Centra solution to the CFRO interface; (o) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to Team Centra for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS II system; and (p) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to EDS for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS I system, excluding change requests?

SCOTT BRISON, MINISTER OF PUBLIC WORKS PROVIDED RESPONSES FOR QUESTIONS (a), (b),(c), (d) and (i), AND ANNE McLELLAN, MINISTER OF PUBLIC SAFETY RESPONDED TO ALL REMAINING QUESTIONS.

(a) were bidders required to agree to pay a penalty of $30,000 per day for every day their system was not implemented after the Service Effective Date (SED) to defray costs of paying two vendors, E.D.S. of Canada Ltd. (EDS) and Team Centra, at the same time and, if so, was this clause or a similar penalty clause carried forward into the contractual agreement between Team Centra and the Crown;

BRISON RESPONSE: The RFP required bidders to meet a mandatory provision agreeing to pay as liquidated damages the sum of $30,000.00 for each calendar day of delay (caused by the contractor) subject to a total amount of liquidated damages not exceeding 15% of the contract price. The amount represents the best pre-estimate of loss to Canada in the event of such a failure, and is not intended to be, nor construed as, a penalty. The identical Liquidated Damages provision of the RFP was included in the resulting contract between Team CENTRA and the Crown.

(b) what was the official Contract Notification Date (CND) as required by the RFP;

BRISON RESPONSE: The RFP specified that Contract Award would be within 30 business days of the date of notification of the selected bidder. The selected bidder was notified on January 28, 2002. The selected bidder was authorized to proceed with the work on April 4, 2002 under a start-up contract as per the RFP. Following the receipt of all the necessary approvals, PWGSC issued a follow-on main contract for the work, as specified in the a RFP, on July 17, 2002.

(c) what was the exact contracted SED [Service Effective Date];

BRISON RESPONSE: The contracted SED date was January 9, 2003. This date was amended initially to June 30, 2003, and subsequently to March 31, 2004, due to delays in the approval of Bill C-10A and its associated regulations. The final regulations were made on November 29, 2004 following Parliamentary and public consultations, with an announcement of the changes by the Minister on December 2, 2004.

(d) in accordance with the RFP requirement, how much has Team Centra paid to the Crown based on the contracted SED;

BRISON RESPONSE: None of the delay has been deemed to be caused by the contractor; Team CENTRA has therefore not paid any liquidated damages to the Crown, in accordance with the contract.

(e) how much has the Crown paid to EDS, Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP since the original SED of the ASD contract with Team Centra;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: Since the original SED, the Crown has paid EDS $15.76 million, excluding GST/HST, to maintain the current Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS) formerly named CFRS, as per the contract. The Crown has paid Team CENTRA, $8.85 million, GST/HST extra, for work performed in accordance with the contract.

(f) what deliverables were provided by EDS in return for these payments;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: For the period of January 2003 through February 2005 EDS provided:
• Maintenance and support services for the Canadian Firearms Information System (CFIS); and
• The CFIS satellite applications and the infrastructure required to support the CFIS and the satellite applications.

(g) what deliverables were provided by Team Centra in return for these payments;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: The deliverables provided by Team CENTRA were related to the demonstration of the solution readiness and encompassed:
• Multiple live demonstrations of the solution;
• Production of documentation related to the system architecture, business process operations, implementation plan, training plan and preliminary client service delivery; and
• Business impact assessments, and security readiness assessments.

(h) is the anticipated overlap of the two systems (CFRS I and CFRS II) still in accordance with the requirement in the RFP;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: There will be no overlap of the two information systems, nor was this a requirement set out in the RFP.

(i) was the intent of the RFP to ensure no payment was made to the “Systems Integrator” until the system was delivered and, if so, when was the system delivered and what was the ongoing monthly charge to the Crown from Team Centra, CGI Group and BDP and what was the purpose of these charges;

BRISON RESPONSE: Yes, the RFP stipulated that no payment would be made until SED. Also the RFP specified that the contractor was wholly responsible for acquisition or development costs to make ready all service requirements for start-up on the SED. The contracted solution has not been delivered. A revision to the SED is currently under review. As originally contracted for the operation phase, the estimated monthly amount for support services rendered is approximately $1.42 million, GST/HST extra. The original contracted support services for operations include business operations, enabling technology, IT utilities and service management.

(j) has the user acceptance testing taken place on the Team Centra Application Code;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: With reference to answer (c), the user acceptance testing did not take place due to delays in the passage of Bill C-10A and the need to make associated regulations. The user acceptance testing will be rescheduled as part of the contract amendment negotiation.

(k) what was the value of the EDS Change Request to incorporate Bill C-10A amendments into the CFRS I system and why was this request needed;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: The cost to incorporate Bill C-10A related amendments into the CFIS by EDS was $561,867.29, GST/HST extra. The final regulations were made on November 29, 2004, following Parliamentary and public consultations with an announcement of changes by the Minister on December 2, 2004.

(l) what is the estimated dollar value and revised end date for the contracts currently under review with Team Centra, CGI Group and EDS;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: This information is not available at this time as negotiations of these matters are underway with each contractor regarding their respective contracts.

(m) why was the interface with the Canadian Firearms Registry On-Line (CFRO) considered a change request to the original Team Centra contract if it was expressly stated as a mandatory requirement for all bidders;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: Team CENTRA met the mandatory requirement for CFRO. Team CENTRA was requested to conduct an options study, in accordance with the Task Authorization process defined in the contract, in view of potential new CAFC operational requirements.

(n) what was the value of the contract amendment, if any, of the Team Centra solution to the CFRO interface;

McLELLAN RESPONSE: The value of the approved Task Authorization for Team CENTRA to conduct an options study was $128,359, GST/HST extra.

(o) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to Team Centra for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS II system; and

McLELLAN RESPONSE: To date, the Crown has not made any payments to Team CENTRA for ongoing maintenance support services. CFIS II has not been delivered. A revised SED is being finalized as part of the contract amendment negotiation.

(p) what is the contracted cost and actual cost paid to EDS for the ongoing maintenance and support for the CFRS I system, excluding change requests?

McLELLAN RESPONSE: The contracted cost for ongoing maintenance and support of CFIS I under the EDS contract, since January 2003 is $14.7 million, GST/HST extra. The actual cost paid to EDS to date is $13.9 million.