Government Temporary Help Services Advisory Committee Meeting Record of Decision - March 26, 2009

• Agenda
• Record of Decisions

Agenda

Thursday, March 26, 2009
9:00 AM to 12:00 PM, Place du Portage
12C1 Room 101A,
Gatineau, Québec

1. Approval of Record of Decision of February 26 Meeting
2. Update on opinion of Legal Counsel regarding Family Day and "How to" Packages prepared by Suppliers
3. Feedback on training of Federal Department Users
4. Qs and As
5. Revised training for "new users"
6. Supplier usage reporting
7. Other Items
8. Next Meeting
9. Round Table and Closing Remarks

Record of Decisions

In attendance

• Pierre Paquette, PWGSC (chair)
• Jason Storm, PWGSC
• Debbie Sinclair, PWGSC
• Joanne Cattai, PWGSC
• Lucie Kealey, PWGSC
• Helen Seto, PWGSC
• Lan Mao, PWGSC
• Caroline Carson, Health Canada (HC)
• Susan Ireland-Nadeau, Department of National Defence (DND)
• Roland Dimitriu, PWGSC (Material Management)
• Dan Moorcroft, QMR Staffing
• Jeremy Ingle, The Association of Canadian Search, Employment and Staffing Services (ACSESS)
• Kathryn Tremblay, ACSESS
• Martin Chenier, ACSESS
• Meredith Egan, ACSESS

Industry brought up the issue of Province of Ontario Bill 139 -- Employment Standards Amendment Act (Temporary Help Agencies). Industry was concerned that the new Bill will affect the Temporary Help Industry in Ontario as it changes rules on how THS workers are administered by THS agencies. It is in first reading and has not received Royal Assent at this point. Industry representative will be present at the provincial public hearings. PWGSC asked Industry to send pertinent information to help understand the issue and to help analyze the impact of this issue on the federal government.

Item

Item 1. Approval of Record of Decision of February 26, 2009 Meeting

• The Record of Decision from the February 26, 2009 meeting was adopted by the Committee with the following revisions:
  • Item 2, Third Bullet, the fourth sentence is to be revised to "PWGSC cannot provide general procurement training, nor was the intent."
  • Item 2, Third Bullet, add this sentence at the end, "PWGSC will follow up with Client Departments on the use of SA through education and assessment framework."
  • Item 3, Second Bullet, the third sentence is to be revised to: "Suppliers have provided PWGSC with questions/complaints they had received and have suggested PWGSC to review feedback received from the training sessions."
  • Item 3, Third Bullet, the fourth sentence is to be revised to: "Industry members raised concern, as they were under the impression that suppliers should not be allowed to prepare training material, which had been previously discussed and agreed to at a previous THS Advisory Committee meeting."
• PWGSC reminded that the new method of supply THS Supply Arrangement portion is for THS requirements of $400K and less and requirements in excess of $400K are to be subject to traditional procurement methods (i.e., competed on MERX).

Item 2. Update on opinion of Legal Counsel regarding Family Day and "How to" Packages prepared by Suppliers

• Deferred to a later date.

Item 3. Feedback on training of Federal Department Users

• PWGSC presented to the Committee the results and findings of Federal Department User training.
• There were 845 federal department users trained, out of which approximately 75% reported that they didn't have previous procurement experience. 932 federal users have confirmed to attend the upcoming training sessions.
• PWGSC advised Client Users to document and report non-responsive suppliers to PWGSC. Industry asked what is considered to be non-response and what recourse Client Users have when dealing with habitual non-responsive suppliers. PWGSC stated that the non-response instances should be documented and reported to PWGSC at the time of occurrence for PWGSC to start the immediate investigation. PWGSC reiterated the business rule of the SO, i.e. the right of first refusal.
• Client Users reported to PWGSC that they have been receiving calls from Suppliers giving them instructions on how to use THS. PWGSC advised Clients that if they receive these instructions from suppliers, they should verify the information with what's included in the user guide and should always follow the user guide.

Item 4. Qs and As

• PWGSC provided Committee members with a copy of the document titled "New Method of Supply for Temporary Help Services (THS) Questions and Answers for Federal Department Users". They will be sent to Federal Department Users that have already attended the training sessions. Follow-up emails will be sent to these users with updated Qs & As.
• Industry disagreed with the Answer to Q25. Industry stated that the Committee had agreed at previous meetings that the maximum number of suppliers Clients could go to is 10, not 3.
• PWGSC pointed out the wording of "not recommended", in responding to the question if a Client could invite 10 Suppliers, and further expanding on this by detailing the approach under SO and SA with the final wording of "additional Suppliers could be invited". The agreement of a minimum of 3 is contained in the User Guide that had been reviewed and accepted by the Committee. PWGSC agreed to consider adding wording to indicate that it is possible to go to 10 (or more).

Item 5. Supplier usage reporting

• PWGSC informed the Committee of the changes with Usage Reporting. Instead of submitting monthly usage reports as what was contained in the RFSO/RFSA, Suppliers will be required to submit quarterly usage report on the total value of all contracts/call-ups awarded to it during the reporting period, with information including designated user department and dollar value. The Usage Report template (in Excel format) will be available on the THS website. For commodity management purposes, the Committee will be asked in the future to provide feedback on the usage of classifications.

Item 6. Next Meeting

• The next meeting will be held April 16, 2009 Place du Portage, 11 Laurier, PDP III, Gatineau, Québec, Tower C, 12C1, Boardroom 101A, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM. The Agenda for the next meeting will be sent to members via e-mail prior to the meeting.