Companies and consortiums qualified for bids

CDPQ Infra, subsidiary of Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec, announced today the companies and consortiums that qualified as part of the qualification process for the completion of the Réseau électrique métropolitain (REM) project. 

Qualified companies and consortiums will have the opportunity to participate in the international call for proposals process for two major contracts: the first for infrastructure engineering, procurement and construction (EPC contract) and the second for provision of rolling stock, systems and operation and maintenance services (RSSOM contract).

These calls for proposals are expected to be launched the week of November 14, 2016. Qualified companies and consortiums will then have a period of approximately six months to submit a proposal. In accordance with the announced schedule, construction is expected to start in spring 2017 and the first trains are expected to be in operation at the end of 2020.

Qualified companies and consortiums

Qualified companies and consortiums are as follows (in alphabetical order):

EPC contract:

• Groupe NouvLR
• Kiewit-Eurovia, a partnership

RSSOM contract:

• Alliance Montréal Mobilité (AMM)
• Bombardier Transportation Canada Inc.
• Groupe des Partenaires pour la Mobilité des Montréalais (PMM)

The complete list of companies making up qualified consortiums is provided in Appendix 1 to this news release, as well as the list of companies and consortiums that submitted qualification applications and those that requested qualification documents.

Review of qualification applications

CDPQ Infra conducted a rigorous, transparent and fair analysis of all qualification applications, in accordance with global best practices.

An independent auditor, Knowles Consultancy Services (the Independent Auditor), was mandated to monitor the integrity of the application analysis process, ensure compliance with honesty, openness, fairness and transparency principles, as well as compliance with the terms and conditions set out in the request for qualification. Over the past 20 years, Knowles Canada experts have served as procurement auditors in more than 300 calls for tenders and requests for qualification processes on behalf of provincial governments, the federal government and large companies.

Three evaluation committees, comprised of internal and external evaluators, were formed:

• Technical Review Committee
  Responsible for assessing the technical quality of each application.
• Financial Review Committee
  Responsible for assessing the financial capability of companies and consortiums that submitted an application.
• Legal Review Committee
  Responsible for (1) checking that the applications meet the eligibility conditions set out in the request for qualification, (2) assessing the overall compliance of applications with respect to the requirements and guidelines in the request for qualification, and (3) examining relationships and potential conflicts of interest of companies and consortiums.

A fourth committee, the Clarification Committee, was also formed to analyze the requests for clarifications submitted to companies and consortiums that submitted qualification applications by the evaluation committees, to ensure that such requests were indeed requests for clarifications and not requests for supplementary information.

At the end of their analyses, and after reaching member consensus, the evaluation committees sent their evaluation report to the Independent Auditor and to the Selection Committee. The Clarification Committee also submitted a report to the Independent Auditor and the Selection Committee.

The Selection Committee, composed of internal and external members, subsequently reviewed and validated the reports of the evaluation and Clarification committees. Based on these reports, the Selection Committee qualified the applications that obtained the highest scores, and submitted its report to CDPQ Infra’s Board of Directors. Based on the Selection Committee report and the Independent Auditor’s final report, CDPQ Infra’s Board of Directors unanimously ratified the qualified companies and consortiums.

Once the qualification process was completed, the Independent Auditor provided the following “unconditional assurance: ln our professional opinion, the qualification process has been conducted with probity, in a fair, open and transparent manner”. Independent Auditor certificates for the EPC and RSSOM contracts are available in Appendix 2 to this news release.

Publication of the ridership study

With the call for proposals process for the EPC and RSSOM contracts underway, CDPQ Infra also published today the complete ridership study for the REM. This ridership study of the reference project for financing purposes follows the different preliminary studies focused on network dimensioning, a summary of which was presented to the Bureau des audiences publiques en environnement (BAPE) in summer 2016.

The ridership study published today confirms preliminary dimensioning data and includes different analyses, updates and field surveys carried out over the past few months to provide a rigorous picture of the REM's projected ridership. In addition to specifying the assumptions and preliminary results, this data is an important element in the call for proposals and project financing.

Ridership study highlights (including ramp-up factor)

Available documents

• Ridership study summary
• Complete ridership study (Update November 22, 2016)
• Appendix 1 - Request for Qualification : Results
• Appendix 2 - Attestation of assurance