Summary:
As part of its recovery from the November 2021 Atmospheric River Event, that flooded major parts of the City, the City of Merritt has embarked on an overarching program called the Coldwater River Renewal Plan (the “CRRP”), which is comprised of various projects of dike construction and improvement works along the Coldwater River as it flows through Merritt, BC. One of the projects under the CRRP is for the construction of a new series of dikes (known as the “Dike 129/130 Project”) on land which includes a mix of public and privately-owned properties.

As the Dike 129/130 Project will require the City of Merritt (the “City”) to acquire privately-owned properties prior to construction, the City will require the services of a professional consulting organization(s), that are suitably experienced in providing consulting support to public sector organizations regarding the valuation and acquisition of private properties for similar large-scale infrastructure projects. The City has issued this Request for Pre-Qualification (“RFQUAL”), to invite non-binding submissions from experienced land acquisition consulting organizations to provide land acquisition consulting and associated services on an ‘as and when needed’ basis to the Dike 129/130 Project and its various sub-projects, over the next 3-years.

Key summary details of the Pre-Qualification process are as follows:

• As an outcome from this RFQUAL, the City will shortlist up to 2 Respondents that will then become ‘Pre-Qualified Organizations’.
• The Pre-Qualified Organizations will be ranked in order of 1^st and 2^nd (with the 1^st-Ranked Organization being the highest-ranked, and the 2^nd-Ranked Organization being the lowest-ranked) according to their total weighted scores from the RFQUAL Evaluation.
• For all future land acquisition consulting assignments and related services required as part of the Dike 129/130 Project (and including any other similar City land acquisition-related projects which may not formally be part of Dike 129/130), (collectively referred to herein as the “Assignments”), the City may at its sole option either:
  1. Provide a right of first refusal to the Pre-Qualified Organizations, in order from 1^st-Ranked to 2^nd Ranked*, for the Direct Award of a contract of any value for the Assignment; or
  2. Invite the Pre-Qualified Organizations to participate in a ‘by-invitation’ only 2^nd-stage RFP process for the specific Assignment; or
  3. Conduct a public-Request for Proposals process open to both Pre-Qualified Organizations and non-Pre-Qualified organizations, where the specifics of the Assignment warrant a further public process at the sole discretion of the City.

*Right of first refusal will first be offered to the 1^st-Ranked Organization.  If the 1^st-Ranked Organization does not have capacity to take-on the Assignment or the parties cannot come to a mutual agreement regarding the Assignment, then the City may at its sole option offer a right of refusal to the 2^nd-Ranked Organization.

• The Pre-Qualification of organizations from this RFQUAL will be valid for a period of 3 years commencing from the Closing Date of this RFQUAL, in accordance with the requirements of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA).   No further notices to solicit Submissions for inclusion in the Pre-Qualified Organization list will be issued during this three-year period. 
• No exclusivity shall be provided to the Pre-Qualified Organizations regarding land acquisition consulting services for the City of Merritt. As noted above, the City may choose to run separate public competitions for such services to certain assignments under the Dike 129/130 Project. 

Further details on the potential service requirements, and the Request for Pre-Qualification process are contained in the attached RFQUAL documents.