Notice of intent to Award 

For

Permits, Licensing and Land Software

Notice of Intent to Award: NOI2025-0064

Issued: April 11, 2025

1. Notice of Intent to Award (“NOIA”)

This Notice of Intent to Award is issued by City of St. Albert (the “City’) for procurements as required by policy and trade agreements in relation to a specific procurement, as detailed below. 

This is a public notice indicating to the vendor community that the City intends to award a contract for goods, services or construction to a pre‐identified vendor, thereby allowing other vendors to signal their interest in bidding, by submitting a Statement of Capabilities. If no vendor submits a Statement of Capabilities that meets the requirements set out in this NOIA, on or before the closing date specified above, the City may then proceed with the award to the pre‐ identified vendor.

The City has a requirement for a Permits, Licensing, and Land (PLL) software for City use. The purpose of this NOIA is to signal the City’s intention to award a contract for these services and/or goods to the vendor identified in this notice.

Before awarding a contract, however, the City provides other vendors with the opportunity to demonstrate that they can satisfy the requirements set out in this NOIA by submitting a Statement of Capabilities during the posting period.

If other potential vendors submit Statements of Capabilities during the posting period that meet the requirements set out in the NOIA, the City may undertake a public bid solicitation process in order to award the contract to a vendor that meets the City’s requirements. If no other vendor submits, on or before the closing date, a Statement of Capabilities meeting the requirements set out in this NOIA, a contract will be awarded to the pre‐selected vendor.

2. Description of Procurement

   The city intends to award the delivery of the e-permitting software Cityworks PLL (Permits, Licensing and Land) Accelerated Deployment Package by Trimble to ESRI Canda (“ESRI”).

   ESRI is the only authorized license provider of Trimble’s Cityworks Asset Management System (AMS) and Cityworks Permits, Licensing and Land (PLL) software in Canada for more than 20 years.

   The scope of work includes an e-permitting software package that includes an expedited implementation plan called the Accelerated Deployment Package (“ADP”) to meet the funding objectives of the Housing Accelerator Fund (“HAF”) for 2025 as awarded by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (“CMHC”).

   The scope of work includes consideration for the following:

• Delivery of 10 standardized permit types included in the ADP (9 building permits and 1 development permit).
• The ADP is necessary to implement the above permit types within a four-month time frame to meet HAF funding requirements.
• The ADP includes pre-loaded workflows, data capture fields, notifications and reports based on the Alberta Building regulations.
• Out-of-Box ArcGIS Integration Capabilities - to support accessing and managing data within a centralized asset repository.
• Focused Training – easy-to-learn standard Cityworks PLL functionality.
• Preconfigured Public Access Portal Site – PLL Core templates preconfigured to work with the public access website.
• Real-Time Insight – Standard inboxes, dashboards, and reporting functions
• Hosted/Managed Cityworks Online Canada (SaaS) Platform – The Cityworks Online Canada (CWOLC) is designed to work with Esri’s ArcGIS Online and/or ArcGIS Enterprise. It is a cost-effective managed SaaS solution that is easily accessible from any location at any time and on any device. It is integrated and deployed in a highly available, redundant, scalable, and secure environment hosted in the Microsoft Azure Canada Central Region with all datacenters located in Canada.
• Esri Canada will lead a Cityworks Configuration Walkthrough workshop with the City’s project team.
• Add-on Application Programming Interfaces (API) for financial payments system, electronic plan review and Outlook Suite.
• Add-on data migration to transfer historical data from legacy systems onto Cityworks PLL.
• Mobile application functionality with real-time updates.

3. Justification of Award

The intent to award a single source contract to Esri Canada for the Cityworks Permits, Licensing, and Land (PLL) software for the municipality's permitting and development application needs is based on the Cityworks software's seamless real-time bi-directional integration with Esri's Enterprise Geospatial database and its compatibility and integration with the planned implementation of Cityworks for asset and maintenance management. Cityworks is built directly on top of the ArcGIS platform so there is no requirement to synchronize data between Cityworks and the Esri GIS system because all data is updated in real-time.

Software Solution’s Requirements:

• The solution,
  • must comply with Technical Standards. The City’s architecture mandates that all geocentric applications must integrate in real time and bidirectionally with the Esri Enterprise Geospatial Database. 
  • must meet the requirements for real-time synchronization between permit and application records and spatial features including addressing, parcels, districting, and development constraints, and shared geodatabase and application architecture enabling seamless data exchange between permitting, applications, and asset management.
  • must be fully compliant with corporate GIS governance policies.
  • must integrate seamlessly with Asset and Maintenance Management Systems currently planned for implementation. The municipality is in the process of implementing Cityworks for asset and maintenance management.
  • Must utilize a unified application platform to reduce the need for multiple disparate systems and resulting integration points, and reduces the City resources required to maintain and manage the applications.
  • must have the capability for built-in Building Information Modelling (BIM) using integrated ArcGIS parcel data and information submitted by the applicant via online submissions. 
• Integration must meet operational requirements and the City’s technical standards by ensuring that City staff have access to real-time data and streamlined workflows across all land management, permitting, licensing, maintenance management and asset management processes and operations.
• Time is of the essence:
  • Implementation must be expedited. This is critical to meet the initial phase of implementation deadline for the municipality to meet the funding objectives by the end of 2025.
  • Flexible Implementation Process: expedited implementation stream must meet the municipality’s tight deadline for initial implementation but also allows for flexibility in configuration and customization to external and internal user interfaces over time, as required.

The City did not call for open competitive proposals for the following reasons:  

1. The municipality is in the process of securing a contract from a public RFP process for implementing Cityworks for asset and maintenance management. Cityworks PLL integrates seamlessly with the Cityworks Asset Management System (AMS), fulfilling the requirement for efficient tracking of the full life cycle of public assets and for maintaining consistency and accuracy in asset-related data and processes. The City also realized the overall savings in terms of the licensing fees for the software solutions.
2. Esri is the City’s authoritative enterprise platform for spatial data management, analysis, and visualization. It is the sole authorized distributor of Esri Inc. software in Canada and the only Canadian provider authorized to deliver consulting and professional services directly tied to Esri’s proprietary systems, including the Esri Enterprise Geospatial Database and  Cityworks integrations. 
3. Cityworks PLL is built on Esri's ArcGIS platform, utilizing the geodatabase as the authoritative data source for all asset and land information, it solely meets the requirements for real-time seamless bi-directional integration between permit and application records and spatial features including addressing, parcels, districting, and development constraints, and for a shared geodatabase and application architecture enabling seamless data exchange between permitting, applications, and asset management.
4. Cityworks PLL offers an ‘out of the box’ solution for six permit types that can be rolled out within six months through standardized workflows for certain permits and application types.
5. Cityworks PLL offers an expediated implementation stream to meet the municipality’s tight deadline for initial implementation but also allows for flexibility in configuration and customization to external and internal user interfaces over time, as required.
6. ESRI is the exclusive distributor of Cityworks AMS and Cityworks Permits, Licensing and Land (PLL) software in Canada.

For the best interest of the City to meet the funding objective by the end of December 2025, it is choosing to acquire Cityworks PLL and for ESRI to implement the solution to mitigate the risks of significant negative impacts of having to change any supplier and solutions in terms of:

• organizational capacity, as the effort to change will require resources and re-work in terms of training and streamlined support. A substantive investment in time and resources has already been made by the City for the enterprise GIS solution and the upcoming Asset Management System solution. 
•  financial cost  due to substantial duplication of costs, restraint in resources, timeline delays and operational disruption on resources for having to procure and support new system.

4. Criteria for assessment of the Statement of Capabilities (Minimum Essential Requirements)

Any interested vendor must demonstrate in a Statement of Capabilities how they meet all the listings below. The City reserves the right to validate the submitted Statement Capabilities within a set time period (if applicable):

1. Ability to supply the solution at the same (if not exceeded) mandatory requirements, as noted in Section 2. Description of Procurement, and 3. Justification of Award.
2. Ability to supply the solution at equal or lesser cost.
3. Ability to meet (if not earlier) the specific timeline required.

5. Award Details 

1. Vendor (pre-identified): ESRI Canada Ltd.
2. Time Frame for Delivery or Length of Contract and Extension Options

It is anticipated that the resulting contract will be awarded by early June of 2025 for one year term, with an option to extend on the same terms and conditions for an additional optional term of up two terms of one (1) year each.

3. Value: $359,448.91 excluding GST.

The disclosed value covers the term specified on 5.b and considers the maximum range of expenses to cover known cost within the deliverables.

6. Deadline for Statement of Capabilities

The submission deadline for this NOIA is April 28, 2025 2:00:00 PM Local time. 

7. Contact Information

To contact the City in relation to this NOIA, respondents must initiate the communication electronically through the bidding system. The City will not accept any respondent’s communications by any other means, except as specifically stated in this NOIA.

For the purposes of this procurement process, 

Questions related to this NOIA are to be submitted through the bidding system only by clicking on the “Submit a Question” button for this specific notice.   

8.  Statement of Capabilities Submission Instructions

If you intend to provide a Statement of Capabilities per these NOIA requirements, submit by using “Submit a Question” and adding an attachment in the bidding system.

9. Trade Agreements 

Unless otherwise indicated, and subject to applicable exceptions and exclusions, this procurement is covered by:

• Chapter 5 of the Canadian Free Trade Agreement
• Chapter 19 of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement
• Article 14 of the New West Partnership Trade Agreement