Governments are looking for solutions for infrastructure planning and mitigation; flood, water and drought management; fire, wildfire, heat and mitigation; climate adaptation; and disaster response and recovery to mitigate risks, build resilience and recover in times of crisis.
With trillions in projected infrastructure investments by global governments, Canadian businesses are well-positioned to offer unique emergency preparedness and climate adaptation products and services. However, growing internationally has its challenges, and in this sector, knowing how to advance a proposal to a contract in often urgent timelines is critical.
In this webinar, Jonathan McAuley, Senior Export Advisor at CCC, discusses how the Government of Canada, via CCC, supports Canadian businesses from business proposals to contract completion with foreign government buyers.
CCC is a crown corporation within the Government of Canada’s international trade portfolio. We are Canada’s government to government contracting agency and the only one offering international contracting expertise to help Canadian exporters of all sizes sell to federal, state, or municipal governments worldwide.
We take on contracts to deliver goods and services on behalf of Canadian businesses across multiple sectors, mainly in the aerospace, defence, infrastructure, clean technology, renewable energy, and ICT. We can also take on contracts in other sectors.
We offer a few different programs to Canadian businesses.
- U.S. DoD Prime Contractor is where we help the U.S. Department of Defense procure from Canadian businesses through CCC.
- International Prime Contractor is where CCC signs commercial contracts with governments worldwide to purchase goods and services available from Canada.
- Sourcing is where CCC provides procurement expertise to the Canadian federal government to quickly deploy international aid or assistance programs.
- Global Bid Opportunity Finder, or GBOF, is a web-based platform that compiles opportunities from over 40 sources and 200 jurisdictions worldwide.
- Advisory services provide guidance on CCC’s programs and refer Canadian businesses to other export and business services across the Government of Canada.
U.S. DoD Prime Contractor
The U.S. Department of Defense is very interested in climate adaptation. Since 2021, the DoD has released over 15 climate-related strategies and plans, including the 2024 National Defense Industrial Strategy. It aims to ensure supply chains have security within the DoD and consider the impacts of climate change. It lays out a flexible framework for actions to achieve resilient supply chains.
When building your profile with the U.S. Department of Defense, remember that the department values climate resilience, so use some language to that effect.
Whether it’s your first time or you’re a well-practiced exporter, CCC can guide you through the initial registration steps, help you navigate the solicitation process, and troubleshoot regulatory issues that come up along the way.
International Prime Contractor
International Prime Contractor is a unique program designed to fulfill specific and complex government contracting requirements outside the United States.
We elevate what would be a B2G commercial deal to a government to government (G2G) contract that essentially levels the power imbalance between parties. G2G is often used in urgent and compelling cases as it can open some procurement channels outside the normal competitive processes. Our program is designed to be nimble, and every contract is uniquely tailored based on the circumstances.
This allows us, for example, in infrastructure, to take the right amount of time from proposal and negotiation to detailed considerations to fulfill buyer needs, including climate resilience-related ones. G2G can also be used for service contracts and rapid contracting for disaster response.
Canadian business qualifications
CCC is typically looking for businesses with products and services that governments buy, have the financial capacity to pursue large deals, have more than two years of experience selling products or services to a government entity, and have a track record or plans to sell internationally.
CCC will advise on whether we’re beneficial to them in that market, whether that government can do G2G contracting, and how we get there. We typically look for opportunities larger than $10 million, though we can go as low as 1 million.
Due diligence process
CCC first performs due diligence on a Canadian business with products and services specifically to sell to a foreign government entity. This allows CCC to qualify a Canadian business as a CCC customer and enables us to understand whether the business and its capability fit G2G contracting.
A second step in this due diligence is to consider the actual opportunity. Once both steps are completed, they form the basis of a risk mitigation framework applied throughout the contract’s lifetime to mitigate any risks that might arise.
Selling to the U.S. Department of Defense follows a process different from that of the International Prime Contractor service. Canadian businesses are encouraged to contact CCC to learn more about it.
After due diligence
After CCC enters a service-level agreement with the Canadian business, we submit a proposal and negotiate a deal with the foreign government buyer. After successful negotiations, CCC signs a prime contract with the foreign government buyer, and a simultaneous domestic contract with the Canadian business to supply the goods and services.
Cost recovery fees
Organizations using CCC’s U.S. DoD Prime Contractor service have no cost recovery fees to consider.
For International Prime Contractor service, CCC charges a cost recovery fee typically built within the prime contract for the buyer to pay. As part of the fee, CCC provides a contract performance guarantee, also known as a sovereign guarantee.
The Canadian business supplies the products and services directly to the buyer, but CCC manages the contract performance and administration of payments with the foreign government buyer. Our oversight and financial administration reduce the contracting risks and provide additional levers to resolve unforeseen issues.
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Bermuda airport
In 2017 CCC and Aecon signed a G2G contract to redevelop the L.F. Wade International Airport in Bermuda. It was completed on time and budget and opened in 2020.
This award-winning project exemplifies climate adaptation and resilience from multiple angles. It uses LED lighting inside the terminal and on the airfield. The terminal is designed to minimize lighting and cooling by allowing natural light to enter the terminal while minimizing radiant and conductive heat transfers, reducing the lighting and air conditioning required.
A building automation system automatically adjusts the air flows and intake of outdoor air in response to the actual occupancy in any given zone, significantly reducing energy consumption and cooling. A new wastewater treatment system enhances greywater recycling. The treated water is recycled back into the terminal and used in separate non-potable water systems in terminal washrooms.
The airport was relocated inland about nine feet higher than the old terminal to address the risk of sea level rise over time or floods through ocean storm surges during the hurricane season. The terminal’s construction used materials to ensure it could withstand wind speeds of 277 kilometres an hour, equivalent to a category five hurricane.
Irrigation in Peru
In 2024, CCC signed a project with the Peruvian government for services offered by Hatch as part of the third stage of the CHAVIMOCHIC infrastructure project.
Once completed, this project will be the largest drip irrigation project in the world, enabling Peru to cultivate new land and improve existing farmland. The project will supply reliable and potable water to 40,000 families and create over 150,000 new local jobs. This project is expected to boost northern Peru’s agricultural and agribusiness sectors, enabling the region to triple its exports from 400 million to 1.2 billion.
Nuclear reactor retrofit in Romania
In 2023, CCC and AtkinsRealis signed a G2G contract in Romania to extend the life of a CANDU reactor at the Cernavoda nuclear power plant. Cernavoda’s long-term operation is central to Romania’s plan to reach its energy stability and decarbonization goal and phase out nearly four gigawatt hours of coal-fired power by 2032.
Firefighting in Bolivia
In 2019, significant forest fires were threatening Bolivia’s Amazonian rainforest, and their government called on Canada for an urgent solution.
Having never worked in Bolivia or with the Bolivian government, Coulson relied on CCC to ensure that it could safely deliver on this contract while returning its assets to Canada. Given the urgency of the fire, CCC and Coulson turned around a contract in just one week, and the Bolivian government received the services of a crew of 18 members along with three helicopters, two Sikorskis, and a custom Chinook from Coulson.
Firefighting in Argentina
In 2023, CCC and Coulson partnered for another G2G contract to provide Argentina with aerial firefighting services. CCC facilitated this contract through an MOU with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development.
Firefighting aircraft in EU
CCC and De Havilland have been working with the EU’s civil protection mechanism, rescEU, to make CCC the prime contractor to its member states. We’ve concluded some contracts to provide 22 DHC-515s to Greece, Croatia, Portugal, France, and Spain. We’re currently finalizing an agreement with Italy.
CCC works very closely with other partners of the Government of Canada as part of Team Canada.
Trade Commissioner Service (TCS)
TCS is Canada’s official commercial representative at our embassies and high commissions abroad. Like Export Development Canada (EDC), it provides market intelligence, advice, and introductions. TCS leads Canada’s trade shows, where businesses are invited to participate, including on trade missions abroad.
For export-ready businesses, the TCS can help define some opportunities and resolve problems during contract delivery once you sign on to deliver. CCC works with the TCS on every project as part of our pursuit teams; they are essentially our eyes on the ground.
Export Development Canada (EDC)
EDC provides capital financing insurance products that could be useful to businesses on specific projects. At times, CCC will work with EDC when products can benefit from their financing or their insurance products, but we’re not limited to working with them.
CCC can work with any financial institution, including multilateral or foreign credit agencies. This comes in handy when we’re doing a project in another country. Sometimes, that country has a private source of financing that’s not necessarily from its sovereign government that it wants to use within a project.
GBOF
GBOF is a web platform created by CCC that allows Canadian businesses to search for government opportunities using their keywords and have new opportunities emailed to them at the frequency of their choice.
The tool will translate the solicitation subject to English or French and help you quickly find opportunities that you can pursue regardless of the language it’s originally in. One pro tip: some businesses will provide a consultancy service, charging to do what GBOF does for free. All you must do is sign up – visit gbof.ca.
Leads from foreign governments
Most of CCC’s leads are from recurring customers, new businesses, trade partners and sometimes governments. In almost all circumstances, the buyer is a government entity, and the market is somewhat complex.
When Canadian businesses approach us with an opportunity, they can be assured that we keep all the information they provide commercially confidential.
Suppose a foreign government approaches us with an opportunity and doesn’t already have a specific business or capability in mind. In that case, CCC will look at its roster of qualified customers who have completed our due diligence in the last three years.
For this reason, qualifying with CCC before an opportunity is beneficial. If we don’t have a qualified Canadian business, we work with our partners to find a potential company that could do the work.
Having CCC as a partner and the Government of Canada as the prime contractor on the project can be an added benefit for the buyer, pushing them over the line to say yes because they see the risk mitigation and the bilateral relationship as an advantage. Advantages include:
Assurance from the Government of Canada—CCC assumes all performance oversight and financial administration, handling payments and cash flows throughout the contract’s execution. We also remain fully engaged during the delivery and warranty period, working with the purchasing government to ensure the project is completed successfully.
Favourable financing terms—G2G contracts with CCC are well regarded by commercial lenders as they are backed by a history of success and the Government of Canada.
Value for money—Our fees, which are included in the total contract price, cover the effort and costs of CCC performing due diligence reviews on the Canadian supplier and our oversight role in managing contract performance per the agreed terms and conditions so we can have a successful outcome.
If your contract is with the U.S. Department of Defense, there are no fees per the Canada–U.S. Defence Production Sharing Agreement (DPSA). The Government of Canada funds our services to your U.S. DoD buyer.
Reduce procurement risk—Countries that sign G2G contracts with CCC have the Government of Canada’s assurance that their projects will be delivered as negotiated and guaranteed. Before working with any Canadian exporter, we thoroughly review their integrity and technical, managerial, and financial capabilities. This ensures they have the required ethical business practices and can successfully deliver the project.
Meet urgent deadlines—When a competitive procurement process or the risk of failed tender can introduce unacceptable delays to high-value, high-priority projects — or even compromise national security — Canada’s G2G approach accelerates the contracting process to ensure urgent acquisition needs are met. CCC can satisfy priority government needs with unsolicited proposals from our qualified Canadian suppliers using Canada’s flexible and transparent G2G contracting approach.
Support for local economies—Beyond the products or services delivered, Canada’s G2G contracts can also create local benefits through direct employment and regional subcontractors. This can provide opportunities for local training and knowledge transfer, which results in positive, long-term economic impacts.
Q: How can Canadian businesses help with urgent needs during climate disasters?
A: In cases of urgencies worldwide, Canada’s embassies and our representation abroad closely monitor what’s happening. We recommend touching base with them; they would be the best ones to advise you on how to help.
Q: Can CCC help us navigate the process of working with the U.S. Forest Service?
A: CCC’s program in the U.S. is specifically with the U.S. Department of Defense. However, other agencies can sometimes use that same agreement to deliver projects of national importance or national security. For example, Homeland Security and the U.S. Coast Guard have used CCC. I don’t think the Forest Service has used CCC, but it may be one of those case-by-case scenarios where you’d have to ask them whether the project fits within their understanding of national security.
Q: Does CCC perform due diligence once a Canadian company has expressed interest in a particular opportunity or RFP, or can it be done proactively?
A: Proactive due diligence can be done for U.S. DoD and International Prime Contractor programs. The review is valid for three years, so once a project presents itself, you can take it on much faster.
A note about RFPs: The U.S. DoD uses many solicitations and RFPs, but the rest of the world does it on a case-by-case basis. CCC sometimes sets the stage for sole-source projects; other times, there are competitive G2G contracting processes.
Countries often contact CCC about a specific project and ask Canada to present its best solution. They’ll compare it to other countries that also do G2G, such as the UK, Germany, France, South Africa, South Korea, Japan, and Australia in the U.S. Governments use many different channels to procure, and RFPs and solicitations are just some of them.
Q: For a business registered in the U.S., is it better to respond directly to U.S. government opportunities through SAM.gov, and can CCC still add value?
A: Many Canadian businesses will ask us, “Should we get a subsidiary in the U.S.? Should we set up in the U.S. to sell or have a better way to sell to the government in the U.S.?”
Businesses in Canada sell to the U.S. DoD under the DPSA agreement and are considered domestic supplies to the U.S. DoD. If you set up in the U.S., unless the owner of your subsidiary is a U.S. citizen and owns over 51% of your business, that business will be considered a foreign-owned entity.
If you’re a foreign-owned entity, you’ll be listed on a foreign entity list within the U.S., and there will be some limitations on what you can bid on from the U.S. You’re disadvantaged unless you have more-than-majority ownership within the U.S. If you’re a Canadian business, the DPSA agreement allows you to be considered domestic. Thus, you have a better vantage point from Canada when bidding on U.S. DoD contracts.
Sometimes, U.S. DoD contracting officers aren’t familiar with the regulations. CCC is here to help Canadian businesses adjust the language in solicitations when it excludes businesses not located in the U.S. We also advocate for Canada by reminding DoD buyers that regulations state Canadian businesses are domestic supply.
Q: Can you expand on CCC’s cost recovery fee?
A: Our cost recovery fee only applies for contracts under International Prime Contractor. For contracts below $1 million, our cost recovery fee is typically a $50,000 flat fee. Contracts under $1 million rarely happen unless, for example, it’s a patented capability that only one business does; the buying government will only buy through G2G and are willing to pay a premium.
Our fee starts at 5% for projects above a million. It may be reduced depending on the contract’s cost or value, the complexity of the project, the assessed risks, the longevity of the project, and whether there could be recurring projects in the future.
One advantage to note is that because of our guarantee of contract performance, many governments will waive or reduce bonding fees. These are usually the same as or more than CCC’s cost recovery fee.
We work with our Canadian businesses to build the recovery fee into the proposal and prime contract for the buyer to pay.
Videos that may interest you…
How CCC helps Canadians do business with U.S. DoD
Hi everybody. We’re just going to wait a minute or two just in case there’s more people joining the webinar. Alright, welcome everybody. I’m
– I’m Jonathan McCauley, senior export Advisor at the Canadian Commercial Corporation, also known as CCC. Before we begin, I’d like to acknowledge that CCC is located on the traditional and unseated territory of the Anishinabe Algonquin Nation, whose presence here reaches back to immemorial times.
– Today I’ll be presenting Who CCC is, our programs and services, some examples of success stories where businesses can find opportunities, and I’ll explain how you can get started with CCC. For those of you who aren’t familiar with CCC,
– That’s completely fine. We are one of the smallest crown corporations within the Government of Canada, and most people who are familiar with us are because they’ve worked with us in the past. CCC is again, a Crown corporation within the international trade portfolio and we are Canada’s government to government contracting agency. We are the only government of Canada Agency that offers international contracting expertise to help Canadian exporters of all sizes sell to federal, state, or municipal governments around the world. So we take on contracts to deliver goods and services on behalf of Canadian businesses across multiple sectors, mainly in aerospace, defence, infrastructure, clean technology, renewable energy, and ICT. I’ll add that we can also take on contracts in other sectors. The importance, the important part is
– That governments are the buyers. Last year, CCC signed and executed contracts in 62 countries and we supported this through with approximately 600 businesses and 80% of these were SMEs. And I’ll expand on these programs on the next slides,
– But we have a few different programs available to Canadian Businesses and services, the US Department of Defense Prime Contractor, where we help the US Department of Defense procure from Canadian businesses through CCC International Prime Contractor, where CCC signs, commercial contracts with governments around the world for the purchase of goods and services that are available from Canada and sourcing where CCC provides procurement expertise to the federal government to quickly deploy international aid or assistance programs.
– We also have two services that we offer Canadian businesses, so Global Bid Opportunity Finder or GBOF, which is a platform that compiles opportunities from over 40 sources and 200 jurisdictions around the world. And we offer advisory services to all businesses to guide them on challenges that are facing and through opportunities and provide guidance on CCCs programs and to refer them to other services across the government of Canada when we feel they can benefit from help from our partners. So the US DOD Prime Contractor program.
– Before going into the program itself, I want to mention that the US DOD is seized with climate adaptation since 2021. The US DoD released over 15 different climate related strategies and plans, including the 2024 National Defense Industrial strategy. Its aim is to ensure that supply chains have security within the DOD and to include the impacts of and the effects of climate change into consideration. It lays out a flexible framework for actions to achieve resilience supply chains. And so if you are targeting the US-DoD and you can benefit from CCCs help in doing so, it’s good to remember that they place important on climate resilience and it’s to keep some language to that effect within your profiles when you register for sales to the U.S.
– Now, since 1956, Canada has benefited from being part of a common North American industrial base to facilitate Canada supplied goods and services to the U.S. DoD, CCC is assigned a role as the Canadian custodian of an agreement called the Canada US Defense Production Sharing Agreement. To deliver on this mandate, CCC is embedded in the US and bear with me, they’re, these are called DFARS, So defense federal acquisition regulation supplements we’re embedded as prime contractor for the US DOD contracts greater than $250,000US. This program is provided at no cost to Canadian businesses and no cost to the US buyer. So it’s, we do this as a way to promote a common North American defense industrial base and to, to help Canadian businesses to secure more business in the U.S.
– So it’s open for businesses of all sizes with capabilities of interest that would be considered by what’s essentially the world’s largest buyer. So whether it’s your first time or if you’re a well-practiced exporter, CCC can guide you from the initial registration steps. We can advise you, as you navigate the solicitation process, and we can help troubleshoot regulatory issues that come up along the way. And just as an additional reference, I’ll be sharing some of these references in an email after the webinar in the coming week.
– Another important program that CCC delivers on, and again this is through our government to government contracting approach, is International Prime Contractor. It’s a unique program that’s designed to specific to fulfill specific and complex government contracting requirements around the world. And this program is typically outside of the US to the rest of the world. What we do is we elevate what would be a B2G commercial deal to a government to government contract that essentially levels the power imbalance between parties. G2G is often used in urgent and compelling cases as it can open up some procurement channels outside of the normal competitive processes.
– Our program is designed to be nimble. Every contract is uniquely tailored based on the circumstances. This allows us, for example, in infrastructure to take the right amount of time from proposal, negotiation to detailed considerations in order to fulfill buyer needs including around climate resilience. On the other hand, G2G can be used for service contracts and can take on rapid contracting cases of for disaster response, for example, and I’ve got a good example I’ll show you in the coming slides. CCC as prime contractor provides oversight until the end of the agreed terms and conditions. We include a guarantee of contract performance backed by the government of Canada that provides buyers the confidence that doing business with Canada means on time, on budget and to spec.
– So how does G2G contracting work? So first, we perform a due diligence on the Canadian business that has products and services specifically to sell to a foreign government entity. The due diligence allows CCC to qualify a Canadian business as a CCC customer and for us to understand whether the business and the capability is a fit for G2G contracting.
– A second step to this due diligence is on the actual opportunity. With both of these steps completed, it forms the basis of a risk mitigation framework and we apply this framework throughout the lifetime of the contract in order to mitigate the risks that might arise.
– So after CCC enters a service level agreement with our new customer, the Canadian business, we submit a proposal and negotiate an agreement with the foreign government buyer. And after successful negotiations, CCC signs a prime contract with the foreign government buyer and we enter a simultaneous domestic contract with the Canadian business to supply the goods and services.
– One note is that for international prime contractor, CCC charges a cost recovery fee that is typically built in within the prime contract for the buyer to pay. CCC provides a, I mentioned a guarantee of contract performance or we might call this a sovereign guarantee that is applied within the prime contract.
– The prime, the Canadian business supplies the products and services directly to the buyer, but CCC manages the contract performance and administration of payments with the foreign government buyer. Our oversight and financial administration reduces the contracting risks and provides additional levers to resolve unforeseen issues.
So how does this look like in real life? So we’ll share a couple examples. So in 2017, CCC and AECON signed a government to government contract to redevelop the LF Wade International Airport in Bermuda. It was completed on time and on budget and opened in 2020. This award-winning project is an example of climate adaptation and resilience from multiple angles. It uses LED lighting inside the terminal and on the airfield.
– The terminal is designed specifically to minimize lighting and cooling by allowing natural light to enter the terminal while minimizing radiant and conductive heat transfers, reducing the amount of lighting and air conditioning required. A building automation system automatically adjusts the air flows to and intake of outdoor air in response to the actual occupancy in any given zones significantly reducing energy consumption and cooling.
– There’s a new wastewater treatment system that enhances gray water recycling The treated water is recycled back in the terminal and used in separate non-potable water systems that serves in terminal washrooms. And to address the risk of sea level rise over time or the risk to be floods through ocean storm surges during the hurricane season, the airport was relocated inland about nine feet higher than the old terminal. And the construction of the terminal used materials to ensure that it can withstand wind speeds of 277 kilometers an hour equivalent to a category five hurricane. So good example of climate resiliency.
– Another example of of projects is earlier this year, CCC signed a project with the company Hatch earlier with the Peruvian government as part of the third stage of the CHAVIMOCHIC infrastructure project. So, so once completed, this project is gonna be the largest drip irrigation project in the world, enabling Peru to cultivate new land and improve existing farmland. The project is gonna supply a reliable and potable water to 40,000 families and create over 150,000 new local jobs. This project’s expected to boost the agricultural and agribusiness sectors in northern Peru, enabling the region to triple its exports from 400 million to 1.2 billion.
– And in late 2023, CCC and Atkins Realis signed a G2G contract in Romania in support of extending the life of a CANDU reactor at the Cernavoda Nuclear Power Plant. Cernavoda’s long-term operation is central to Romania’s plan to reach its goal of energy stability and decarbonization, as well as phasing out nearly four gigawatt hours of coal fired power by 2032.
– And now I have a few examples of disaster response and this one in particular with Coulson. So in September, 2019 when major forest fires were threatening the Amazonian rainforest in Bolivia, their government called on Canada for an urgent solution. Now, Coulson, having never worked in Bolivia or with the Bolivian government, they reached out to CCC in order to ensure that they can actually deliver on this contract while being able to return its assets back to Canada safely. And so CCC and Coulson, with the urgency of the fire, we turned around a contract in just one week. Yes, that’s a Government of Canada entity turning around a full contract in one week sounds a bit fictitious, but it really happened. The Bolivian government was provided with aerial firefighting services. Coulson provided a crew of 18 members along with three helicopters, two Sikorskys and a custom Chinook.
– Last year, CCC and Coulson partnered up again with another G2G contract this time to provide Argentina with aerial firefighting services. So we facilitated this contract through an MOU that we first signed with the Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development. And one key thing to note for all the businesses out there, is when we are looking to put together a G2G contract with a country that we haven’t done business yet, often times we will look to up that market through using non-binding MOUs that are specific to the work that CCC does.
– Most of you should be familiar with our famous former CanadaAir now De Havilland CL 415s or DHC 515s. CCC for a number of years now, has been partnering with De Havilland to work and prepare a list of potential buyers that could procure this technology as they ramp up production. And so we first started in Morocco where we signed a G2G contract to provide three CL-415s. And you’re currently hearing in the news about these aircraft are actually out there helping out in in Portugal for some of their fires that they’re facing. And then over the last couple of years, and still currently, CCC and De Havillanf has been working in partnership with the EU civil protection mechanism called rescueEU in order for CCC to be prime contractor to its member states. And we’ve concluded some contracts to provide 22 DHC-515s to Greece, Croatia, Portugal, France, and Spain. And we’re currently finalizing a contract with Italy. So a very promising future for this aircraft. Where to find opportunities?
– Now first looking to our Government of Canada Partners. I know some of them are possibly on this webinar as well. I want to mention that CCC works very closely with our government of Canada partners. We are Team Canada, but some differences in what we do and I’ll mainly talk about the Trade Commissioner service and Export Development Canada. So both of these entities have offices and representation around the globe.
– The TCS being actual Canada’s official representation on a commercial angle at our embassies and high commissions abroad, both can provide market intelligence and advice and make introductions to contacts and the TCS will most often lead on Canada’s trade shows, which businesses are invited to participate, including on trade missions abroad. Now for export ready businesses, the TCS can help define some opportunities and resolve problems during contract delivery once you actually sign on to deliver. CCC works with the TCS on every project As part of our pursuit teams. They are essentially our eyes and ears on the ground. CCC being mainly based in Ottawa though a lot of our business development team will be traveling the world either to attend trade shows, trade missions, or to advance projects with our Canadian business customers.
– EDC provides capital financing insurance products that could be very useful to businesses on specific projects at times. CCC will work with EDC when products can benefit from their financing or their insurance products, but we’re not necessarily limited to working with them. So CCC has flexibility to work with any financial institution including multi-laterals or foreign credit agencies as well. And this comes in handy because when we’re doing a project in another country, sometimes that country has a private source of, of financing that’s not necessarily from their sovereign government that they want to use within a project. CCC. Putting a guarantee of contract performance on a project can help to attract financing as well.
– Now, if you’re an SME should consider looking at, and I say should, and you really, really should consider looking at CanExport. Through this program, businesses can qualify to receive funding to help open up a brand new export market. One quick important note is in the US that’s divided into multiple different markets and there might be other places in the world as well. So that can be a good tool for you to have the resources necessary to expand your business in new places.
– Global Bid Opportunity Finder.
– So during the pandemic, GBOF as we call it, was one of CCCs special projects. This was one of our goals in order to provide a new resource to match businesses to opportunities. And so provided at no cost, GBOF is designed as a web platform that you can use to search using your own keywords and then save these searches to have them emailed to the recurrence of your choice. And it will even translate the solicitation subject to English or French and help you quickly find opportunities that you can pursue regardless of language that it’s originally in. One pro tip, some businesses will actually provide a service as a consultancy actually charging to do what GBOF does. GBOF is free, all you have to do is sign up and you could do so by going to GBOF.ca, so bookmark that
– Connecting businesses through G2G So where does CCC find our own opportunities? That’s a question we often receive. The majority of our leads are actually brought to us from recurring customers and new businesses and the rest through trade partners and sometimes governments. In pretty much all the circumstances, the buyer is a government entity and the market has some level of complexity. But when continuing businesses approach us with an opportunity, number one I have to mention is that everything CCC does, we keep commercial confidential every, in all the information that is shared from a specific business, we keep with that business in order to protect their own opportunity.
– Now, for those businesses that bring opportunities, having CCC as a partner and the Government of Canada as the prime contractor on the project can be that added benefit needed for the buyer to push them over the line to say yes because they see the risk mitigation and the bilateral relationship as an advantage. When we get approached from foreign government buyers who have already, they either have already worked with CCC or they’ve seen some of our projects or the the results of our projects and they’re interested in what we have to offer. If they don’t already have an a specific business or capability in mind, CCC will look at its roster of qualified customers.
– So what do we mean by qualified customers? That’s businesses that have already submitted a due diligence and that due diligence lasts three years. We look to use this qualified customer list to build a list of capabilities that are available from Canada, that CCC can be ready to back through our government to government contracting mechanism. And so there is a benefit to to qualifying and if you’re interested in doing so, myself and my colleagues, we can always help you with that.
– Now, if those government buyers that approach us don’t have a business in mind and we don’t have that specific business that could fulfill the need on our roster, we’ll work with our partners to try to find a potential business that could do the work. So mostly we’ll work with the Trade Commissioner Service and EDC to help find that proper customer. One note is that CCC is a small Crown corporation. And for this reason it’s important to note that we don’t take on every project. Before committing, we take on a robust due diligence to ensure that the Canadian business can deliver the terms and conditions of the contract and consideration. We also validate the project and look at who the buyer is and whether there might be some adverse consequences to the environment, to human rights or in terms of labour practices How to get started?
– Now, CCC is typically looking for businesses that have products and services that governments buy that have the financial capacity to actually pursue large deals. And I’ll talk about the size of deals afterwards. More than two years of experience selling this specific project or product or service to a government entity, whether that’s in Canada or abroad. And we’re looking for businesses that have a track record or have plans to sell internationally. So we want to help businesses that are being strategic and are actually doing their work in terms of, of targeting a market abroad, a government entity in particular. And we, that’s where CCC will advise on whether we’re beneficial to them in that market, if that government is able to do government to government or how do we get there.
– In terms of opportunity, we’re looking for typically larger than $10 million deals, though we can typically go as low as 1 million. If it’s a 1 million to 10 million deal, we’re looking for a project that can either open up a brand new market or lead to larger or multiple projects later down the line. Now the reason for this size, and this is for International Prime Contractor I should say the reason for this size is because CCCs cost recovery fee, which starts around 1 million and sorry for projects over 1 million, will typically not be worth it for projects below the $1 million mark.
– Because our contract management services cost us at CCC a specific amount, we just need to make sure that we cover our own basis in terms of our own expenditures. Now for the US Department of Defense, the the threshold is lower, so $250,000 US for opportunities specifically because that’s is enshrined within the, the agreement that we have. And there is no fee for the business nor the the buyer.
– Now I recommend that you visit our website ccc.ca. Our marketing team has spent a lot of time to revamp this website. It looks great. There’s a lot of different eBooks and guides. We have a newsletter you can sign up for to receive information including about trade shows that we participate in. You can read profiles of Canadian businesses that have succeeded with government to government contracts. You can get more information on our our services and there’s a link, the Contact Us link that leads to a form that also helps you to think about what kind of information that we need to look at in order to know how to guide you better. And so do fill out that contact form. It goes to our client contact center, which is myself and Matt la and we have a, a couple others, Chris Eich who newly joined our team and Tito Almeida. And so our small but mighty team receives inquiries from Canadian businesses. We help with the onboarding process, including that due diligence questionnaire. We respond to questions and there’s no wrong questions and we can provide guidance on all our programs. We are the ones, so Matt, myself and Claude are the ones that typically attend trade shows in Canada and sometimes in the US and we are there to meet with businesses. We’re there to talk about our programs and answer your questions. Speaking of questions, I believe we’re gonna open it up to questions from the floor. There is a chat, it might be easiest to write your questions in the chat, so I’ll stop sharing my screen and see what what
– Questions we have now. Okay, so we have a first question that is
– From Roman who they proposed their help and assistance to European countries currently affected by huge flooding in way of emergency evacuation of people and their belongings to the safe places. What are urgent steps that I can recommend? Okay, thanks Roman, and thanks for sharing your website. Now number one, urgent. You know, in cases of urgencies around the world, Canada’s embassies and our representation abroad, they’re mo closely monitoring what’s going on on the ground. And especially if you are a Canadian business and you are involved in helping out in these matters, I do recommend touching base with our representation abroad if you are specifically helping a specific region. And they would be the ones best to, to give you some advice on what you could do to help. Now, from CCC’s perspective, we, so on our sourcing program where we help deliver aid to, to the rest of the world, we do this on behalf of Global Affairs Canada and the Department of National Defense. And when we do so, we do it at their direction. If they are looking for a specific capability and we don’t have a business or they don’t specify a business that they’re looking for, we might be able to suggest to Global Affairs or the buyers, some businesses that we’ve already qualified through our due diligence process. So, you know, if, if this is something that you work in and you’re a Canadian business, do contact us to get your due due diligence done.
– Okay, and from the chat, does CCC assist contracting to First Nations communities in Canada or internationally and and that may be faced with climate risk or have renewable energy needs? Thanks for this question. So to answer specifically, CCC’s mandate is with regards to helping Canadian businesses export to countries around the world. So we don’t have a domestic mandate per se that said, first Nations or indigenous led businesses are more than welcome to work with us, especially when they have projects that they’re looking to do abroad, be they with regards to climate resilience or or other. We do have a couple of indigenous businesses that we are talking to like pro metal for example, and we’ve been engaging with the Canadian Council of Indigenous Business and CCAB as well trying to get the word out that CCC is a resource that
– You, you should consider and talk to us. Does CCC include first Nations knowledge for forest fires and irrigation with regards to the Peru project? Great question. Now, CCC, when we, so we are as a prime contractor, we’re the macro manager of the contracts. We work with each project on an individual basis with our lead Canadian business. That business has to put some sort of social perspective within the project in collaboration with the government buyer. And so short answer is we have a responsible business conduct that we encourage businesses to read and we, and we ask businesses to have a plan to apply on their projects as well. And so in this case, it would be the local first involvement in Peru and it would be led through the business with some guidance from CCC. But typically we put this in the hands of our businesses and I’ll actually share the link to our responsible business conduct in the,
– In the email that we’ll be sending out.
– Okay. I’m just gonna flip back to the Q and A section. Okay. So we have a question about the wildland urban interface firefighting in Alberta. Would your agency be able to help navigate US Forest service or, and so the quick answer is CCCs program in the US is specifically with the US Department of Defense, but sometimes other agencies are able to use that, that same agreement in order to deliver projects of national importance or project of National Security. Homeland Services, for example, will use it, the Coast Guard at times has used it. So whether the Forest Service can use it is a question. I don’t think they’ve used it in the past. It’s, it’s one of those case by case scenarios where you’d have to ask them whether the project you’re looking to do fits within their understanding of what national security is. Vertical farming opportunity,
– Specifically when a government will secure the, the offtake of what is produced to ensure that type of produce is no longer imported. Now, CCC, we’re currently looking into expanding our services to include agriculture and agri products. We have some like agricultural related projects like the hatch drip irrigation project or we’ve, we export potash to Bangladesh, for example, sort of adjacent to the sector. We haven’t done specific farming projects because we haven’t had a circumstance where either a Canadian business has approached us with a project where the government is a buyer internationally looking to do a farming opportunity. So there might be some potential for that in the future, but it hasn’t risen off. Now with regards to whether it changes Canada’s imports or exports from that country, we don’t really look at that as a dimension to our projects. Our main goal number one, is to facilitate trade like it’s a policy instrument with a commercial taste to it.
– Okay, next question.
– So whether the due diligence process I mentioned whether businesses starts once they’ve expressed interest in a particular RFP or if it can be done proactively. So yes, the due diligence can be done proactively for both programs, U.S. DoD and the rest of the world. We’ve given it a lifetime of I believe, three years. So that on the, on the corporate side of things, the, we can qualify a business as a potential customer to help speed things up so that once a project comes on board, you can actually take it on much faster. Now with regards to RFPs, I wanna mention something too.
For the U.S. DoD, it is a lot by solicitations and RFPs before the rest of the world. It’s case by case. So CCCs expertise is in sole sourcing and we will sometimes set the stage to do projects through sole sourcing. There are also different ways of procurement. Sometimes there are competitive G2G contracting processes. So these businesses don’t hear about specifically through diplomatic channels, countries will contact CCC and say that they’re looking to, for example, do an infrastructure project and they want Canada to present its best solution and they’re gonna compare it to other countries who also do G2G. So the UK for example, Germany, France, South Africa, South Korea, Japan and Australia in the US as well. And so there all, there are many different channels that governments use to procure and, and RFPs and solicitations are just some of them.
– Okay, so I see there’s a question about, so a business that is a registered entity in the US and whether you’re better responding directly to US government opportunities through sam.gov. And can CCC still add value advantage? This is a really good question and I’ve got an answer for you now. A lot of Canadian businesses will say to us, you know, should we get a subsidiary in the U.S. Should we set up in the US in order to sell, have a better way to sell to the government in the U.S.? Here’s, here’s the thing, businesses in Canada specifically to sell to the U.S. DOD under the agreement, the DPSA agreement are considered domestic supply to the US DoD. If you set up in the U.S. unless the owner of of your subsidiary is a US citizen and owns over 51% of your business, that business will be considered a foreign owned entity. Now, if you’re a foreign owned entity, you’re gonna be listed on a foreign entity list within the US and there’ll be some limitations as to what you can actually applied to or, or bid on from the U.S.. So you’re actually disadvantaged unless you have a more than majority ownership within the U.S. On the flip side, if you’re a Canadian business, the DPSA agreement actually allows you to be considered domestic. You actually have a better vantage point from Canada to bid on these contracts.
– Now, U.S. being enormous and this agreement being, you know, old since 1956, there are some times where contracting officers aren’t familiar with all of the nitty gritty of the regulations. And we at CCC, we’re constantly there to help businesses to either adjust language in solicitations because they, it specifically says we exclude businesses not located in the US for example. And we do that by, you know, through our contacts all the way up in the Pentagon working directly with them to remind them that there’s this agreement in place and there are regulations that state that Canadian businesses are domestic supply. And likewise this is reciprocal. So DND from Canada can actually purchase through this agreement from the US and so it is a a two-way street and it does benefit both countries.
– Can I expand on the cost recovery fee? You’re guessing it’s a percentage based on Yes, I can expand on that. So for International Prime Contractor, our cost recovery fee that starts at the $1 million mark below 1 million, it’s a standard $50,000 flat fee, any product under a million, they rarely happen unless, for example, it’s a, a patented capability that only one business does and that government will only buy through government to government and they’re willing to pay a premium on that project. And so it has happened, but it really rarely happens above a million. Our fee starts at 5% and it reduces based on the size of the project in terms of, of costs or value in terms of the complexity of the project, in terms of the risks that are assessed, the longevity of the project, and whether there could be recurring projects in the future. So that fee, there’s a range that we do, it does go down. And typically one advantage to note is that because of the guarantee of contract performance that we place on our contracts, a lot of governments will waive or at the minimum reduce bonding fees that they put on projects, which will typically come out either about the same or better off with the CCC cost recovery fee. Of course that cost recovery fee is built into the prime contract for the buyer to pay. So what we do is when we are targeting a project with a business, when we’re developing a proposal, we have the business calculate that fee within the proposal that we will then jointly bring to the buyer. Okay. Gonna look for a couple other questions.
– How long is the onboarding process and the due diligence? So, good question. So the onboarding process, it’s, it’s not very long. It’s different obviously for the US DOD than it is for International Prime Contractor for the US DOD the reason is different is because if you haven’t done it already, you also have to register with sam.gov and get what’s called an Ncage number. And so there’s a couple external steps that take, you know, about two weeks to do for CCC, our due diligence, the speed of it depends on whether there’s an active project that we’re pursuing or looking to pursue or if you’re just looking to process the corporate due diligence to be a qualified customer. If it’s just to, to be considered a a qualified customer, it’s tops a week. If it’s for a specific project, if that project is urgent, we can turn around the due diligence in even a day. You know, we’re fairly quick, we’re a small entity, you know, 130 people, everybody knows everybody at this work and we all get along. So we’re fairly quick at turning things around, okay, we are an advisory service
– And we’re currently providing services to a foreign university about improving their ESG posture and advise for their greenhouse gas reduction strategy. How can CCC help support this scenario? Okay, so we’d have to go back a little bit in terms of looking at, you know, first CCC does projects with foreign governments. So if this university is for some reason in another country owned by a government entity, and if this project is above that threshold I mentioned, so minimum 1 million, but ideally above 10 million, then we would look at it together as a potential G2G project. But given what it is, I don’t think it would actually meet the thresholds. I think it would actually be below tho those ranges. And I’m a little bit doubtful as to the university being a government entity. Okay.
– Just gonna flip over to the chat to see if there’s questions there. I do. I see success, much success in digital offerings, deep security and access to public places, for example. And, okay, I’ll start with that. So ICT is one of our sectors and we do deliver various projects in ICT some for example. So they’re all very different. But one of our earlier projects, one of our earlier projects is with regards to digital lotteries in El Salvador and in Honduras with a company called Canadian Bank Note, these are long term projects. We’ve started them at least 10 years ago, maybe more, and they are on a 10 year renewable term. We have, we’ve done other projects, for example, with GD-OTS in Panama, a digital upgrade to their emergency communication systems. And so, you know, the reality is it’s all case by case. Every project is different and CCC is adaptable across sectors.
– One of the benefits is that because we work in multiple sectors, we’re not, we don’t have a siloed approach. We actually have lessons learned as contract, experts that we apply in order to benefit contracts that would be in different sectors. And so obviously some places are more different, more complicated than others. The US for example, will require higher level certifications and qualifications in order to do ICT related projects. A lot of priority for emergency products and services like firefighting. But what is a priority to provide more proactive services like monitoring and ensuring fires never impact outside of natural purpose. So again, you know, mitigation and planning and prevention measures, those types of projects are priorities for foreign governments. Of course they are, there are conversations led by multilaterals that are encouraging countries around the world to create national plans to address these things.
– And I, and I have to admit ahead of time that I’m not an expert in this domain, but I will say that for CCC, we take on projects as they are brought to us based on their probability of success. We don’t often get projects brought to us that are early on in the prevention side of things. If you’re a business that does this, and if you are targeting a foreign country, then absolutely if you have an opportunity in this domain, do bring it to our door and we’ll look at it. Now, I would suspect in non-urgent situations in a lot of countries around the world, they’ll often look to deliver on these projects themselves within their domestic capabilities. But you know, Canada has a lot to offer and I, and I believe that this sector in particular is one that’s growing very fast and has, there’s a lot of expertise and knowledge that, and innovation that Canada brings that could really be beneficial.
– So You have a request to build and set up two medical centers with the foreign government and you’re wondering how CCC can help us. Okay, so if a Canadian business has an opportunity to build two medical centers now I’d want to look into this even more. Like, I’d want to find out, are you, are you talking about an actual, you know, hospital or buildings or like an infrastructure project or are you talking about a, a temporary medical camp maybe for like the, a military institution for example. Now we’ve take, we’ve built hospitals before. This is something that we can do. We’ve done both actually. We’ve done tent hospitals with Sprunk shelters I believe, or Weather Haven and, you know, we have the possibility of doing this type of work. So send us a message through our contact us. Is there a support from CCC for a Canadian company to develop disaster response solutions? Specifically to the Hurricane Belts. Product is focused on G2G and B2B, depending on the size of the country and their exposure to hurricanes, the project could be less than 1 million and larger than 10 million or that’s two different areas.
So CCC, you know, if you have a project that is of interest that has a government buyer, a specific government entity that is looking to buy this solution, and if the value is a above 1 million or larger than 10 million, please send us a note through or contact us. We’ll have a look. But it has to be real, it has to be a real project. We would look into validating that project, find out if it’s a priority with the buyer and if they have a budget identified and what exactly is this, what does the project actually look like? So yeah, send us a note and I’ll just have a look at the q and a one more time.
– What services do we provide in the Caribbean?
– So going back to our International Prime Contractor program, that’s the program that we use to, to deliver projects in the Caribbean. When continuing businesses approach us, we, you know, we will look at the Caribbean, they are close to us and we have great relationships in the Caribbean. We, for example, built infrastructure projects there and have delivered expanded peers in St. Kitts and Nevis, for example. And I mentioned through our sourcing program aid with the, with Global Affairs Canada. So I, we’re closing up on time here, we’ll be actually responding to questions that are in the chat within our, our response in the email that we’ll send to all participants. I want to thank everybody for taking the time to be with us today. It was a lot of fun and I’m always happy to share this information. We do, we do onboarding meetings with businesses when they contact us and they have a potential project or they’re a fit for CCC, we’re more than happy to answer questions more specific to where they situate themselves in their sector and, you know, happy to help you along the way. So on behalf of CCC, again,
– Thank you for joining us today.
