A proposal suggesting an Alberta-based company design and install an indoor playground for the new Martensville Community Recreation Centre (MCRC) as a $250,000 sole source contract, rather than through an open bidding process, received a frosty reception from members of Martensville City Council at a meeting on Tuesday, April 2.
Council members reached a consensus at the meeting to request additional information. The proposal will come back to council at a later date.
“After further consideration, this might be the deal of the century, but I’m not prepared to decide at this meeting,” said Martensville City Councillor Darren MacDonald. “More information is needed. I think we should investigate this further.”
Those sentiments were echoed by councillor Spencer Nickel, Jamie Martens and Mike Cox.
The indoor playground sole-source contract proposal was contained in a report from the city administration to the April 2 council meeting.
The City of Martensville’s purchasing policy indicates that a sole source contract is an agreement entered into by the city for the purchase of goods, services or work, which has not been publicly advertised or for which written quotations or telephone quotations have not been received from more than one vendor.
The policy also states that public tendering is required when the value of a purchase is expected to exceed $10,000.
The city administration report to the April 2 council meeting stated that one of the amenities at the Martensville Community Recreation Centre (MCRC), currently under construction and slated to open this fall, is an indoor playground.
However, the design of the indoor playground was not tendered out by the architectural firm of AODBT during the design of the overall facility. Instead, AODBT used the services of Park N Play Design, a company based in Rocky View, Alberta, near Calgary.
The $250,000 price tag associated with the indoor playground was included in a $300,000 ‘furniture, fixtures and equipment’ budget allocation for the MCRC approved by Martensville City Council at a meeting on March 19.
Martens said council’s reluctance to endorse the sole source contract at the April 2 meeting was not a reflection on Park N Play.
“I would prefer to have the project tendered to ensure transparency,” said Martens.
Park N Play has 22 years of experience in the business and has designed, built and installed over 5,000 parks and play spaces across Canada, including at least five in Saskatchewan since 2016. Three of those were in Saskatoon and one in Rosetown.
The company is also an ‘awarded supplier’ for Kinetic GPO, a group purchasing organization (GPO) that includes public sector entities such as municipalities, social services organizations, health care agencies, and educational institutions.
According to the Kinetic GPO website, the agency “empowers members to leverage their collective ability to benefit from group buying and achieve greater savings on all goods and services that an awarded supplier has to offer.”
Kinetic GPO further states: “GPOs play an important role in the public sector by reducing procurement costs, shortening the time to acquire what’s needed, ensuring compliance, and mitigating bias and risk associated with Public Sector purchasing.”
According to the report to Martensville city council, Park N Play has been an awarded supplier for the past four years.
The administration report to council stated that the City of Martensville is also a member of Kinetic GPO through its membership in the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association (SUMA), and has the ability to purchase goods and services through Kinetic GPO without procuring a goods or services tender.
“Using a company that is part of the Kinetic GPO program does give the City some certainty that they are dealing with a company that has been vetted through the Kinetic GPO process,” stated the administration report to council. “That process does ensure that the vendors give fair prices to the members. The vendors were selected through a fair, open and transparent process. (The City) would not have to go to tender, could order playground immediately, eliminating any further delay.”
Cox said while he understands the indoor playground is a key feature of the new facility, it is prudent for council not to rush into a proposed sole source contract without all available information. He added that not all the amenities in the new building are expected to be operational on opening day, and the indoor playground could be delayed a few months if necessary.
While the big-ticket indoor playground sole source contract proposal was deferred, Martensville City Council did approve a second sole source proposal at the April 2 meeting. The sole source contract, in the amount of $25,000, is for Information Technology (IT) consulting services, and will be awarded to Twenty-Four Seven Solutions.
According to an administration report to city council, Nustadia Recreation, the company contracted to operate the MCRC, had earlier approached the city and requested that the IT consulting services be awarded to Twenty-Four Seven Solutions.
“This is a company that Nustadia has used for most of their recreation facilities set up across Canada,” stated the report. “This company will consult, design, procure and set up the IT needs of the MCRC.”
The city administration stated that AODBT has used Twenty-Four Seven Solutions for its IT services and has great confidence in it. The $25,000 price tag was also included in the $300,000 allocation approved by council at the March 19 meeting. Councillors stated that given the critical role IT services play in the operations of the new building, they were comfortable with the decision to award a sole source contract to a recommended company.