- Issue date: February 5, 2026
- Closing date and time: February 12, 2026 by 5:00 p.m.
- Submit to: contracts-contrats@cedec.ca
- Contract period: February 23, 2026 – March 31, 2026
The Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC) is the federally designated economic and labour market development organization dedicated to strengthening the economic vitality and labour market participation of the Official Language Minority Community in Quebec (OLMCQ) through applied research, the creation of public, private and civil society collaborative economic development partnerships, and policy and program development.
CEDEC strengthens the contribution of English speakers and the OLMCQ to the economic development of Quebec, while addressing economic and labour market disparities within the community. Specifically, it generates tangible economic benefits and impacts for English speakers, businesses, social enterprises, and communities, all of which contribute to the vitality of the OLMCQ and the broader Quebec society.
BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
CEDEC manages a large and growing body of applied research, policy analysis, program documentation, administrative data, and external evidence related to workforce development, labour market participation, economic development, and Official Language Minority Community vitality. As the scale, interdependence, and strategic importance of this knowledge base have increased, CEDEC requires an integrated, intelligence-driven system that moves beyond document storage toward active knowledge mobilization.
This Request for Proposals is issued under CEDEC’s Official Languages Economic Development and Labour Market Participation Applied Research Program (EDLMPARP).
CEDEC is advancing a multi-year applied research and system-design agenda to strengthen the economic vitality, workforce development, and labour market participation outcomes of the Official Language Minority Community in Quebec. Central to this agenda is the effective implementation of Part VII of the Official Languages Act, which imposes a positive obligation on federal institutions to take concrete and intentional measures to enhance OLMCQ vitality, including through economic, workforce, and labour market development.
At the same time, Québec’s evolving constitutional and legislative framework, including Bill 1 (the Québec Constitution Act), introduces an additional and consequential policy context that shapes how economic, workforce, and labour market development interventions are designed and delivered in Québec.
This RFP seeks to retain a seasoned policy development firm to complete three integrated components of applied policy research and formulation that, together, can strengthen policy coherence, implementation capacity, and accountability results in the area of Official Languages economic, workforce, and labour market development.
This Request for Proposals (RFP) contains specific details and timelines and should be reviewed carefully prior to submitting a proposal. Every proposal must cover all of the service requirements outlined in the RFP. Incomplete or late proposals will not be considered.
STATEMENT OF PROFESSIONAL SERVICE NEEDS
The purpose of this RFP is to engage a seasoned policy development firm to design, undertake, and complete all three components of the policy work described below as a single, coherent body of work by March 31, 2026.
The objectives of the assignment are to:
- Clarify how federal and Quebec legal and policy frameworks interact in practice in the area of economic, workforce, and labour market development affecting the OLMCQ.
- Provide clear and actionable blueprints for a) a “Positive Measures Lab” and b) a government-wide Official Languages Results Accountability Framework with explicit Part VII alignment.
STATEMENT OF WORK
The successful proponent will be responsible for completing the following three integrated components. Proponents must demonstrate how their approach ensures coherence and logical progression across all components.
COMPONENT 1
WHERE LANGUAGE POLICY MEETS ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY
Comparative Policy and Implementation Analysis of Part VII of the Official Languages Act and Québec’s Bill 1
The proponent will undertake applied policy research examining alignment, misalignment, strengths, and weaknesses between Part VII of the Official Languages Act and Québec’s Bill 1 in relation to economic, workforce, and labour market development.
The work will focus on how legal obligations translate into policy choices, program design, and delivery practices, and how these choices interact across constitutional and jurisdictional boundaries.
Key activities include:
- Designing research questions, scope parameters, and in-scope legal and policy instruments.
- Developing an economic and labour market obligations lens grounded in Part VII duties and relevant provisions of Bill 1.
- Producing a set of foundational legal and policy principles and mapping them to obligations under both frameworks
- Developing an issues matrix organized around economic and labour market development pathways.
- Identifying areas of convergence, synergy, tension, and potential conflict, including the legal nature of each.
- Synthesizing findings and producing ranked recommendations to strengthen complementarity and mitigate risks.
Key deliverables include:
- Brief on economic, workforce, and labour market development obligations under Part VII and Bill 1.
- Issues matrix organized by development pathways.
- Final applied policy research report.
COMPONENT 2
CREATING A BLUEPRINT FOR A COLLABORATIVE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT POSITIVE MEASURES LAB
The proponent will design a Blueprint for creating a permanent Positive Measures Lab situated within the OLMCQ Collaborative Economic Development Ecosystem. The Blueprint must enable CEDEC and its partners to create the capacity to systematically propose, assess, test, evidence, and report on positive measures in the economic, workforce, and labour market domain.
The work will include six integrated workstreams:
- Development of a shared, operational definitions and concepts package.
- Translation of Part VII legal obligations into a practical accountability logic.
- Creation of a positive measures typology with minimum evidence standards.
- Design of a controlled document register to serve as the evidence backbone.
- Design of the Positive Measures Lab as a permanent operating system, including governance and workflows.
- Definition of permanent capacity requirements within the Ecosystem.
The primary deliverable is a comprehensive Blueprint that includes mandate, guiding principles, operating model, governance, job functions, implementation roadmap, first-year operating plan, controlled document register, typology, and evaluation rubric.
COMPONENT 3
BLUEPRINT FOR A GOVERNMENT-WIDE OFFICIAL LANGUAGES RESULTS ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK
The proponent will develop a Blueprint for a government-wide Official Languages Results Accountability Framework with explicit emphasis on Part VII outcomes.
The Framework must move beyond procedural compliance toward an outcomes-oriented system that supports decision making, learning, transparency, and continuous improvement.
The work will define, without executing, the design requirements for:
- A government-wide Official Languages results framework
- Departmental results protocols
- Program logic and performance models.
- OLMC-level results protocols
- An integrated results and accountability dashboard
The work is organized into seven phases covering design requirements, outputs and outcomes, sequencing, interdependencies, governance, dashboard architecture, and synthesis.
The primary deliverable is a single, coherent Blueprint and integrated roadmap suitable for implementation by the Government of Canada and its partners.
REQUIRED DELIVERABLES
The successful proponent will deliver:
- A detailed methodology and integrated work plan covering all three components.
- Interim technical memoranda as required.
- Component-specific reports and analytical products.
- Blueprint-level deliverables corresponding to Components 2 and 3.
- One integrated synthesis report.
- Executive summaries suitable for non-technical audiences.
All deliverables must be provided in English, with clear structure, documented assumptions, and transparent discussion of limitations.
TIMELINE
The full assignment must be completed by March 31, 2026.
Proponents must include a detailed timeline with milestones, dependencies, and review points.
REQUIRED EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS
CEDEC is seeking proponents with extensive government expertise in:
- Applied policy research and legal policy analysis.
- Economic, workforce, and labour market development systems
- Official Languages Policy and OLMC contexts
- Results frameworks, accountability systems, and evaluation design
- Complex, multi-component research and system-design initiatives.
PROPOSAL REQUIREMENTS
Proposals must include:
- Organizational profile and relevant experience.
- Understanding of the research context and objectives.
- Proposed methodology and analytical approach.
- Work plan and timeline.
- Project team composition and roles, including resumes.
- Detailed budget and cost breakdown.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
Proposals will be evaluated based on:
- Quality of team qualifications and experience.
- Demonstrated understanding of objectives and scope.
- Quality and coherence of methodology.
- Relevant expertise and experience.
- Feasibility of work plan and timeline.
- Integration across components.
SUBMISSION INSTRUCTIONS
Proposals must be submitted electronically to CEDEC by February 12, 2026 by 5:00 p.m.
Late submissions will not be accepted.
CEDEC reserves the right to accept or reject any proposal and to cancel this RFP at its discretion.
As we anticipate a high volume of responses to this Request for Proposals, we are unable to address questions prior to the submission deadline. Additional information and the opportunity to seek clarification will be provided to the firms selected to advance to the next stage of the procurement process.
NEXT STEPS
CEDEC may retain one or more proposals for consideration and conduct follow-up interviews.
Please put RFP: CONSTITUTIONAL COMMITMENTS TO COMMUNITY VITALITY THROUGH ECONOMIC RESULTS in the subject line of all inquiries.
This Request for Proposals (RFP) has been prepared by the Community Economic Development and Employability Corporation (CEDEC). CEDEC considers the material in this RFP to be proprietary and confidential. The contents of this RFP must be held in confidence by recipients and used only to prepare a proposal for consideration by CEDEC.