ARCHIVED - Public Works and Government Services Canada

1. Memorandum to Cabinet dated April 2004 defined Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) as the federal lead for the project.
2. Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Province of Nova Scotia and Government of Canada was signed on May 12, 2004.
3. The Interim Cost Share Agreement with the province, signed on October 20, 2004, provided for interim governance and funding and for undertaking preventative works and preliminary works as set out in the MOA.
4. The Sydney Tar Ponds Agency was set up by the province to manage and implement the project. Its operating charter was established on August 18, 2004.
5. An Independent Engineer was jointly appointed in October 2005, to monitor and confirm the engineering and financial integrity of the project as work progresses.
6. A Project Management Committee which includes senior representatives from both the federal and provincial governments oversees all aspects of the project.
7. A Protocol Agreement was established allowing for meaningful economic participation of First Nations communities. Set asides were established for competition among Canadian First nations businesses.
8. Results-based Management and Accountability Framework and Risk-based Audit Frameworks were established.
9. The Final Cost Share Agreement (FCSA) with the province was signed on September 27, 2007, incorporating Environmental Assessment panel recommendations, reaffirming funding commitments and further delineating the governance structure. The FCSA serves as the legal instrument to govern and fund the project to its completion in 2014.

PWGSC
Operating:

Cost Share Payment:

$282,240,000

$8,354,767

$21,451,043

• Expert and technical advice; and
• Project management as lead department - PWGSC’s project team is ensuring the project is complying with the project agreements.

Randy Vallis, Director, Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens Remediation Project

Brenda Powell, Chief Business Management, Sydney Tar Ponds and Coke Ovens Remediation Project

The Government of Canada Marketplace (GoCM) is an electronic catalogue that enables departments and agencies to search for goods and services available through PWGSC standing offers and supply arrangements and to generate order forms for the selected goods and services. E-tools, such as the GoCM, support Government of Canada Procurement Renewal by automating and simplifying purchasing processes, facilitating standardized reporting on purchasing activities, and maintaining high levels of transparency and accountability.

The GoCM will contribute $127 million of savings. These anticipated and quantifiable benefits derive from the contribution of electronic tools to facilitate compliance with mandatory procurement instruments, process efficiencies due to automated business processes and facilitating lower prices through accurate and timely purchasing information needed to leverage the buying power across Government spending.

PWGSC, in addition to being responsible for the development of the economic and business models to support this initiative, will conduct oversight for the various elements of the GoCM Service throughout its implementation and operational lifecycle. The GoCM Project addresses potential policy and legislative changes as opportunities arise for doing business in a different manner through the GoCM. This is done in collaboration with PWGSC legal and policy/program groups and TBS.

• The GoCM involves the following key committees and working groups:
  
  The Client Advisory Board (CAB) is a client-oriented working group with membership presently comprising of over 20departments and agencies

• To become the Government of Canada’s primary source for information regarding standing offers and supply arrangements; and
• To have all mandatory standing offers and supply arrangements available through the GoCM.

Following the launch of the GoCM in December 2006, PWGSC undertook a series of client consultations with the objective of increasing user satisfaction and increasing uptake of the tool. Four hundred online surveys were completed and ten focus groups were conducted across Canada. These consultations indicated a number of areas where the GoCM could be improved. PWGSC identified the user interface, content, and training as areas of concentration for version 2.0 of the tool. Users were involved over the summer of 2007 to influence the development of the user interface of version 2.0. PWGSC worked with a content aggregator to enhance GoCM content resulting in an improved experience for users. In addition, the entire online training site was revamped to correspond to the new user interface. Feedback from users indicated that the new version represented a significant improvement over the original version. User registration increased over 60% in the three months following the release of version 2.0.

As part of the business case for the GoCM, PWGSC committed to making the standing offers and supply arrangements (~2,400) supporting the ten mandatory commodities available through the tool. In an effort to make the tool as useful as possible to clients, PWGSC decided to load all agreements (~8,500) for both the mandatory and non-mandatory commodities. This action exceeded the commitment made by PWGSC regarding the GoCM.

PWGSC was required to meet a series of commitments with respect to receiving project funding from Treasury Board for the GoCM. All commitments have been met and PWGSC has closed the GoCM project. As of April 1, 2008, the GoCM is being operated under normal PWGSC authorities.

It was initially anticipated that some benefits from GoCM would be derived from compliance with mandatory procurement instruments, automated business process efficiencies and leveraging the buying power across Government spending via accurate and timely purchasing information. This expectation was based on assumptions that the system would have operability with financial systems of departments, require mandatory use of the system and receive support for a centralized approach. These assumptions were overtaken by recent trends within the federal community.

Decisions on similar large Informatics Technology (IT) projects have moved the government towards a more decentralized, incremental approach to large IT projects to better manage risks and costs. In addition, recent legislation has expanded deputy minister accountabilities established by the accounting officer role, to include administrative functions like human resources and procurement. This approach runs counter to centralized regimes like the GoCM. In response to this, a more collaborative approach, based on optional take-up and new, easier to use and access purchasing instruments, is required to meet these new accounting officer expectations as well as the call for a service-oriented approach on behalf of client departments. To support the new strategy, review and consultation is underway to determine the most appropriate approach given this new context.

Given this shift in direction, and that at this time the GoCM is a partial tool, providing departments with an electronic catalogue that is not linked with their financial systems, exact savings cannot be determined. Savings opportunities through the use of pre-competed sources of supply were still accessed through the use of this system with a potential savings rate of 7-8%.

Ian Christie, Business Manager, Government of Canada Marketplace, Acquisitions Branch

Liliane saint pierre, Assistant Deputy Minister, Acquisitions Branch