Item - 2019.GL3.4

The General Government and Licensing Committee:

1.  Deferred consideration of the item to the General Government and Licensing Committee meeting on April 23, 2019, with a request that the General Manager, Economic Development and Culture, and the Chief Purchasing Officer provide further details on the projects and costs for work completed and work associated with the additional funding being requested.

The purpose of this report is to seek authority to amend Blanket Contract Number 47020781 issued to Cossette Communication Inc. (Cossette), as a result of Request for Proposal (RFP) 9101-17-7025, for a three-year period beginning in July 2017 and ending in June 2020 by the amount of $562,955 net of all taxes ($572,862 net of HST recoveries), increasing the total contract amount from $447,500 ($455,376 net of HST recoveries) to $1,040,455 excluding all taxes ($1,029,238 net of HST recoveries) for additional marketing and design agency services.

The RFP issued in 2017 was the first time Economic Development and Culture (EDC) has worked with a creative marketing agency. As a result, the hours outlined in the original RFP were estimated based on EDC's past engagement with freelance designers and project-based agency work. No other benchmarks were available to identify the hours of work required to support EDC's needs for a three-year term, particularly in the area of strategic planning.

EDC has utilized 2,021 hours of the total 2,500 hours identified in the RFP, resulting in the need to add additional hours to the contract to allow EDC to continue to work with Cossette for the remainder of the three-year term.