*** IMPORTANT: The questionnaire will be open to responses until Thursday September 4, 2025 at 11:59PM (Pacific Time). ***
DESCRIPTION
The Government of Canada (GC) is committed to enhancing its digital infrastructure to meet the evolving business needs of various government organizations and to fulfill Canadians' expectations for simple, secure, and efficient delivery of government services and benefits. To this end, Shared Services Canada (SSC) is seeking to procure commercially available public cloud services that can operate at multiple data sensitivity levels for Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and native Platform as a Service (PaaS) CS-IAAS-2024 - Tender Notice | CanadaBuys .
In line with this commitment, the GC aims to establish a secure and resilient enterprise digital security ecosystem. This ecosystem will not only support the continuity of services that Canadians depend on, but will also expedite the transition to modern, secure, reliable, user-centric, and barrier-free services, with a strong emphasis on security, privacy and transparency. Upholding the public's trust in Canada's institutions and data holdings is paramount and SSC pursues these goals by focusing on the core principles of integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the data it stores on behalf of the GC. These principles ensure that information is protected from unauthorized access (confidentiality), remains accurate and complete (integrity), and is accessible when needed (availability).
Emerging challenges relating to digital sovereignty have caused SSC to examine its current procurement offerings. This Request for Information (RFI) is intended to gather information towards the creation of a Canadian Sovereign procurement stream for IaaS and PaaS. SSC will consider the feedback gathered as part oh the RFI to support the development of a related procurement.
SSC has started to engage industry to collect information in order to understand better the capacities of Canadian suppliers to provide GC with a fully sovereign public cloud solution which will include as a minimum but will not be limited to the requirements for Canada’s data to be:
1. processed, transmitted and stored exclusively in Canada; and
2. at all times only under the control of service providers, up to and including their ultimate parent corporations, that are not subject to foreign laws that permit foreign governments to obtain access to Canada’s data without Canada’s prior written consent.
Furthermore, it will be necessary for the Cloud services to be, at all times, only under the control of service providers, up to and including their ultimate parent corporations, that are not subject to foreign laws that permit foreign governments to request measures that could affect or discontinue the service.
The findings of the RFI will be instrumental in informing Canadian Sovereign IaaS and native PaaS procurement vehicle(s) that will be complementary to the other procurement vehicles being competed separately.
In respect of all subsequent phases of the solicitation, SSC has invoked the National Security Exception (NSE). As such, this invocation exempts all phases of the procurement processes for sovereign cloud services from the application of all of Canada’s trade agreements, including the World Trade Organization Agreement on Government Procurement (Article III(1)) and the Canadian Free Trade Agreement (Article 801) (CFTA).
Procurement Process: This notice does not relate to a “designated contract” but is intended to obtain feedback from suppliers. For any procurement process that is initiated after SSC considers the feedback in response to this RFI, Shared Services Canada (SSC) anticipates using the Agile Procurement Process 3.0 (APP3.0), an innovative procurement framework designed to expedite processes and yield superior outcomes. This approach will enable SSC to act swiftly and effectively in meeting the GC's cloud service requirements.
Detailed participation criteria and procurement process information will be released on CanadaBuys as the initiative is further developed.
Stay tuned for updates on this opportunity to work with the Government of Canada in its digital transformation journey.
INFORMATION WEBINAR
Informational Webinars were held on August 22, 2025.
Slideshows in both official languages of Canada can be downloaded under the tab "Bidding Details" above.
QUESTIONNAIRE
We welcome input from all vendors and encourage the sharing of recommendations.We invite all interested suppliers to respond to a short questionnaire as part of our Request for Information (RFI). Participation is open and voluntary.
"Sovereign Canadian Cloud Services: Industry Engagement - Wave 1 Questionnaire" is available in both official languages at https://forms-formulaires.alpha.canada.ca/en/id/cmen94ih60115x701q6kwxvzk
You can submit your responses by Thursday September 4, 2025, 11:59PM (Pacific Time).
LANGUAGE
Documents may be submitted in either official language of Canada.
ENQUIRIES
Enquiries regarding this RFI are to be submitted to the email below:
PVRCloudServicesRCRs.DCCServicesinfonuagiquesARF@ssc-spc.gc.ca
