Purpose
The purpose of Policy Notification (PN)-140 is to inform Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC) Acquisitions Program (AP) contracting officers of the new Information Management/Information Technology (IM/IT) Commodity Grouping (CG) Public Cloud Software as a Service (SaaS) and the accompanying clause to be used in conjunction with the CG.
Effective date
This PN is effective immediately. The CG took effect Dec 23, 2019.
Introduction
In alignment with the Government of Canada’s Cloud First Initiative and in collaboration with Shared Services Canada (SSC), PWGSC is working to establish several IM/IT Cloud CGs to support the growing demand for cloud services. This CG is the first such one created for cloud services.
CGs are frequently bought commodities which can be managed as standard groups with systematic risk reviews and associated financial modelling. CGs should be reserved for instances where clearly they represent a cost-effective and practical way of dealing with individual suppliers without creating an undue risk to the Crown.
As per the Treasury Board (TB) Policy on Decision Making in Limiting Contractor Liability in Crown Procurement Contracts, only PWGSC may establish Commodity Groupings.
Other departments, with TB’s approval, may use such a grouping and enter into a contract without a further review, subject to the department determining if any risks unique to their operations may have an impact on the procurement.
Policy overview
A new limitation of liability (LoL) has been established for the Public Cloud SaaS which sets the cap at the previous 12 months of the contract value, per incident, for the duration of the contract period. In support of the newly established LoL for Public Cloud SaaS, a new CG has been created. This CG will allow for the use of the pre-approved Public Cloud SaaS LoL. A new SACC Clause N0004C is added to the SACC Manual for use in procurements for IM/IT Public Cloud SaaS. The Supply Manual has been revised to address Public Cloud limitation of liability.
Revisions to the Standard Acquisition Clauses and Conditions (SACC) Manual
A new SACC Clause N0004C has been added to the SACC Manual.
SACC Manual Clause N0004C provides for first party liability and third-party liability, as well as the limitation of liability, to be applied in contracts for Public Cloud procurements using the new CG.
Revisions to the Supply Manual
4.70.90 Limitation of Liability of the Supply Manual has been revised to include specific information on the CG Public Cloud SaaS.
Revisions to MySource
The addition of the new CG can be found on the Commodity Groupings
page on MySource.
Contact information
Questions related to Policy Notification (PN)-140 can be sent to TPSGC.DPPApublications-APPDpublications.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca
Questions related to the Supply Manual and the SACC Manual can be sent by email to the Strategic Policy Sector’s SM/SACC Team at the following address:
TPSGC.Outilsdapprovisionnement-ProcurementTools.PWGSC@tpsgc-pwgsc.gc.ca.