NJN Network

Allan Campbell says Eastlink submitted an unsolicited proposal to provide rural high-speed internet service. (CBC)

By Stephen Pate
NJN News
January 1, 2008
with story from CBC

CBC reported December 30th, 2008 - No RFP required for Internet deal: minister which means Minister Campbell has broken the law on PEI.

The CBC did not report the illegality of the no tender contract or even question the Minister’s statement which is somewhat unusual. Their story just blandly reports the Campbell’s claim as though he is correct with no research or other opinion.

Rural Development Minister Campbell is reported as saying “There was no need to issue a request for proposals for high-speed Internet service to rural areas of P.E.I., the province’s rural development minister says, because all the major service providers had already submitted proposals.”

The rookie minister is obviously unschooled in public sector procurement policies, the law and the specific laws of Prince Edward Island. Some of the CBC readers apparently know more than Campbell.

According the the PEI Public Purchasing Act and Regulations sections 3 and 4, all goods and services for the Province must be purchased by public tender. Contracts valued at greater than $50,000 must be advertised across the region to comply with Maritime Procurement agreements. NAFTA requires international bidding on contracts worth $8 million such as the Aliant telecom sweetheart deal.

There are exceptions such as emergencies like war and exemptions for road building materials but telecom services are not exempt. Neither is it permissible under the act to simply renew large contracts as Premier Ghiz claims.

The level of pork barrel patronage on PEI has reached new heights with the blase claims of Campbell. Of course, he is talking off the top of his head. Perhaps the Premier should get Wayne MacKinnon, the minister’s media contact to handle all interviews. We thought that was the plan: keep rookie ministers away from the press. Apparently that plan is not working since the media is running wild with stories of Liberal government incompetence and possibly illegal acts.

No RFP required for internet deal: minister

Last Updated: Tuesday, December 30, 2008 | 5:17 PM
CBC News There was no need to issue a request for proposals for high-speed internet service to rural areas of P.E.I., the province’s rural development minister says, because all the major service providers had already submitted proposals.

Allan Campbell says Eastlink submitted an unsolicited proposal to provide rural high-speed internet service. (CBC)
The contract was awarded to communications provider Aliant in November, following which Eastlink, that company’s main competitor, expressed its regrets that there had been no RFP on the project.

The issue came to the forefront again this week when Wellington Gay, a member of the provincial Liberal party who also works for Eastlink, resigned as chair of the Liberal district association in the riding of Stratford-Kinlock.

Rural Development Minister Allan Campbell told CBC News on Tuesday there was nothing for the government to learn from an RFP.

“The major service suppliers on P.E.I. had all submitted unsolicited proposals,” Campbell said.

“If they were to do that, I would assume that they were hoping to be awarded a contract. And now when a contract has been awarded, some people seem to have a problem with that process, and I have a little bit of difficulty understanding that side of it.”

Campbell said three major suppliers had made unsolicited proposals for the contract, and Eastlink was one of them.

CBC reader comments

Brian Timlick wrote: If a proposal is received and accepted, the proposal must have had some “consideration” or monetary value in it. Once the government accepts it, a contract exists.

As a former public sector purchasing agent, i would suggest the minister should have consulted with his purchasing or materials management department about this process before proceeding. I am not familiar with the law in PEI, but it probably is not too different from most other provinces in that it would require FORMAL solicited requests, with time lines and closing dates, often with performance bonds.
This thing is not over yet and should be pushed in the court system.

Omeneves wrote: Of course not, the monkeys are running the zoo.

MAggieRural wrote:I guess I am confused. If there was not a financial committment from the PEI Government to Aliant why is there a “contract” as indicated by Minister Campbell? Am I missing something here? Also who are the major internet providers that expressed interest as detailed by the same Minister?

I do believe we need clarification with timelines. I look forward for some clear answers.

StephenPate wrote:According to the Public Purchasing Act all goods and services are to be purchased by the Purchasing Division of the Province of PEI. (Sec 3). The regulations spell out phone quotes below $5,000 value and three written quotes from a publicly advertised tender for all all other purchases (Sec 6). There are other agreements that the Maritime provinces will allow interprovincial tenders when the aggregate value of the purchase is greater than $50,000.

The law, regulations and agreements are only followed about 5% of the time based on published reports. The Aliant deal is just one of the few that surfaced to the public.

Harold Jarche wrote:I recently switched from Aliant to Eastlink, here in NB. The difference in speed in incredible. Bell @5 mbps on a good day, while Eastlink advertises 15 mbps but on some days I get up to 17 mbps. It’s too bad that Islanders may be getting second rate service.

Country_Dude wrote:So Eastlink submitted an unsolicited proposal, as did Alant, and nowis upset that there wasn’t a tender process to alow it to bid on something it already bid on? This is as bad as Ruranet, withit’s 4 people and a partnership with Xittel, expecting to ge the ilandwide contract.

Quazievil wrote:Fine so Aliant sneaked one in when Eastlink was looking the other way. I can accept that, but I want to know what speeds this High speed that Aliant has promised will be. My fear is they will push out their Wimax service, which in today’s world of IPTV, podcasts, and the media rich websites that are the norm, the piss poor 3Mbs top speed (which they can never actually push out to the end users), just isn’t gonna cut it. So what exactly are they promising to deliver. Even though these companies all love to talk about something being 25 times faster then dial up, In this day and age anything under 5Mbs is the new dial up. Trust me I have the Wimax service, and siting there watching a web pagedraw in the graphics is exactly like it was back in the day with dial up.
Shame on this government if they in there rush to check off a promises to the voters, settle for substandard low quality yesterday technology. That will barely meet then needs of today’s [web] demands and will be outdated by the time they (Aliant) actually get this pushed out.
Of course as any islander can tell you when it comes to Aliant getting something done on time, well I fear this time next year we will all be wondering why it hasn’t been completed yet.

JasonWhite wrote: I was all for this government, now I can’t believe the things I am reading and hearing. Anyone who would do something this big that will hurt all the other providers on the island needs to be out, official channels are there for a reason. Have fun playing in Bell land, it will cost us all a great deal.

Keith66 wrote:In the original story the government signed to continue phone service with Aliant for a competitive rate. This is service for government offices, not for individual Islanders or businesses. In return Aliant agreed to provide high speed internet service to every islander reguardless of where they live.
The actual internet service will be 100% paid for by Aliant at no cost to government. I would assume this means all other providers would be free to provide high speed to all islanders too, at their own expense as Aliant wouldn’t be allowed to have a monopoly. Nova Scotiasigned contracts with internet providers for all residents of the province at consideralble cost to government. I beleive the figure is $75 million total in NS.
I know this sounds too good to be true, but it would be interesting to see if Eastlinkand the other providers wanted a large cash infusion to provide the service. This could be the reason it is an employee complaining and no action by the actual companies involved. Maybe Mr. Gay should have asked his employer what their opinion was before all this fuss. No doubt the government service contract is a great deal for Aliant, but considering the government cash infusion in NS, the rural internet at an equal rate to current srvice sound good.

Donnell wrote: If they were to do that, I would assume that they were hoping to be awarded a contract. And now when a contract has been awarded, some people seem to have a problem with that process, and I have a little bit of difficulty understanding that side of it.”

They have a problem with the process you used…NONE. If you have difficutly understanding that side of it QUIT.

Akbar32 said it perfectly, these companies were guessing with unsolicited proposals. You never gave the an opputunity to tell them what the guidelines where. Also, Aliant(a BELL company) will now have a monopoly in rural areas for the most part. With Eastlink I get 1500 KB/sec, aliant I get 300 KB/sec.. shouldn’t the rural clients have an oppurtunityto decide who they want to go with. Should it not be considered who these rural clients have their business with now? If the majority has eastlink, when they do get internet they will want to bundle. This could have major consequences for eastlink as most will have their phone/internetservice with the same company.

So what can we do? Belly ache on these dumb forms…

Akbar32 wrote:Campbell said three major suppliers had made unsolicited proposals for the contract, and Eastlink was one of them.
— It appears they had an ad hoc RFP. This is innappropriate. Unsolicited proposals can’t be compared because no one knows what the government wants and are merely guessing at it… unless there’s inside information. In any case a proper RFP with what is required, cost estimates, timelines etc is the only fair way for the companies to compete. This is very fishy and I would be suspicious if I lived in PEI.