Effectively Managing Bonding and Insurance Coverage Risks
Steven D. Ness
President, Surety Association of Canada
William Forsyth
Senior Vice President, Marsh Canada Limited

• What do the various levels of government and the MASH sector typically ask for by way of bonding and insurance?
  For which types of projects are bonding and insurance usually seen?
• Understanding the impact of current market conditions on the ability of companies to obtain insurance and bonding
• Addressing the risks of selecting a bidder that has no bonding or insurance coverage
• Dealing with vendor non-compliance with bid security requirements
• Minimizing the risk of and managing vendor defaults
• Examining how the size of a project can affect your ability to obtain bonding and insurance coverage
• Key considerations for bonding related to P3 and construction management projects

Ensuring Fairness and Transparency in the Procurement Process
A. Brian Oliphant
Barrister and Solicitor, The City of Calgary Law Department
Gerry Stobo
Partner, Borden Ladner Gervais LLP

• Best practices for ensuring fairness and transparency in the procurement process
• Minimizing challenges through the use of fairness monitors:
  - Under what circumstances would you seek an evaluation by a fairness monitor?
  - At what point should a fairness monitor be used?
  - Pros and cons of using a fairness monitor: Are fairness monitors worth the cost?
  - Role of the fairness monitor in large procurement contracts
  - Where are fairness monitors being used?

Identifying Emerging Issues, Latest Developments and Tools to Integrate E-Procurement
George S. Takach
Partner, McCarthy Tétrault LLP

• Overcoming provincial and MASH sector administrative hurdles to e-procurement
• Considering the administrative and legal barriers to federal e-procurement initiatives
• Revealing the latest tools and best practices for e-procurement and understanding how they will streamline the
  procurement process
• Comparing the state of integration of e-procurement within the public sector: Who is doing what?
• Assessing legal and emerging issues associated with online bidding and reverse online bidding
  - Electronic bid receipts
  - Document security
  - Privacy considerations
  - Standards for electronic submissions
  - Applicable law
  - Contract A formation

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Opening Remarks from the Co-Chairs

Identifying Risks and Managing Procurement Challenges and Disputes
Part I: Identifying Key Risks that have Emerged Through Case-Law
Judy Wilson
Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

• Step-by-step analysis of key issues determined by case law; when and why they arise
• Applying lessons learned to the procurement process

Part II: Identifying and Assessing Key Risks from the Pre-Tender Stage
Helmut K. Johannsen
Partner, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin LLP

• Ensuring that the procurement process is the most suitable one for each project delivery model
• Identifying key market challenges: Supplier base; fluctuating costs and currencies; cross-border movement of goods
  and services
• Clarifying the differences between RFPs and RFTs and the risks involved in misusing RFPs
• Analyzing the legal consequences arising from passing the prequalify cation process
• To what extent and when can specific bidders be prevented from bidding? Top tips for drafting statements of work and
  RFPs to exclude certain categories of bidders
• Identifying, minimizing and managing top issues with submitted tenders: What can you live with? What bids must you
  avoid?
• Evaluating the extent to which bidders play games to avoid liability and responsibility

Part III: Best Practices in Managing and Resolving Procurement Challenges and Disputes
Judy Wilson
Partner, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
Milos Barutciski
Partner, Bennett Jones LLP
Graham McLeod
Vice President - Project Legal Services, Energy and Infrastructure, Infrastructure Ontario

• Best practices in minimizing and managing challenges based on fairness
• Can standard government indemnity clauses be negotiated? When? Comparing views across the public sector; determining
  what is fair and equitable for both the buyer and supplier
• Top tips for minimizing legal risk from major amendments to contracts post-award

Green and Socially Responsible Procurement: Balancing Policy with Implementation Capacity
Larry Berglund
Principal, Presentations Plus (formerly Director, Supply Management, University of British Columbia)
Jim Nicholson
A/Strategic Procurement Coordinator, Finance & Supply, The City of Calgary

• Understanding the new ethics of procurement: What is sustainable, ethical and environmental procurement?
  What are the latest trends and where is Canada going?
• What impact will green procurement initiatives have on the standard procurement process?
• Exploring the relative costs and efficiencies of new green products: Are they always more expensive? What new
  products and processes are available?
• Relevance of green procurement to procurement of services: Does it make any difference?
• Identifying the state of implementation of green procurement in Canada: What will it take to accelerate uptake of green
  procurement in Canada?
• How does green and ethical procurement impact vendors? Identifying corporate leaders in corporate social responsibility
  and environmental sustainability
• Developing sustainable and green procurement policy and governance structures:
  - How do you set the parameters? What are the costs involved?
  - Best practices to overcome administrative and informational hurdles
• Case Studies: Top tips and lessons learned from the City of Calgary, the City of Vancouver, and the University of
  British Columbia
• Translating green policies into contracts: Examples of good and bad standard clauses; top tips for developing evaluation
  criteria around green procurement

Exploring Opportunities for Cooperative Buying in the Public Sector
Corey Imhoff
Program Manager, Canadian Communities

• Basic principles for bulk buying with multiple legal entities
• How do you form a contract when multiple entities are buying from a single supplier?
• Use of cooperative buying in the MASH sector
• Considerations and best practices for setting up a cooperative buying structure

Closing Remarks from the Co-Chairs

Conference Concludes