Review of Surrey’s Population and Employment Model 2019

Request for Expression of Interest and Statement of Qualifications
The City of Surrey (the “City”) seeks an experienced and qualified consultant to provide assistance in reviewing and improving the City’s current Population and Employment Model (the “Model”). The Model allows the City to generate population and employment estimates for intercensal years as well as for custom areas that do not align with standard Census geographies. It also provides the ability to generate projections which are not available from the Census.

The foundation of the Model is a Geographic Information System (GIS) based building inventory which is a record of all existing buildings in Surrey.

Objectives
The primary objective of the study is to review Surrey’s existing Population and Employment Model and provide recommendations on improving the Model’s basic structure, accuracy and reliability. The recommendations should be based on current best practices and/or opportunities to innovate and provide short and long-term opportunities to improve the Model. To this end, the City wishes to engage the services of a qualified consultant with a background or understanding of demography, the construction and real estate industries, economic and employment analysis, and Geographic Information Systems to:

• Evaluate the City’s current Population and Employment Model methodology; and
• Provide recommendations that will assist the city in improving the defensibility and management of the data structure and reliability of population and employment projection outcomes.

The central requirement of the Model is its ability to generate population and employment estimates for the current year and projections for future years at a sufficiently granular (i.e. building or lot) level. While fulfilling this requirement it is desired that the Model have the following characteristics.

Scope

• Meet with staff (as needed) to understand how the current Model functions. This includes staff from Planning & Development, Engineering and Taxation Departments.
• Review background materials as they relate to the City’s Model.
• Engage with stakeholders to understand data needs as it relates to the Model’s output. Stakeholders include representatives from Metro Vancouver, Surrey School District, Surrey Fire Services and others, as appropriate. Provide an engagement results summary.
• Provide a report that includes the following:
• Evaluation/Assessment of Current Model
• Best Practices Review including an examination of how comparable large or high growth municipalities establish baseline data for population and employment as well as growth forecasts using internal and external data sources.
• Recommendations that provide a roadmap for improvements to achieve a Model with the characteristics outlined in section 3.2 Project Objectives.

Information Meeting:

Date: September 13, 2019
Time: 3:00 p.m.
Location: Surrey City Hall, 13450 – 104 Ave., Surrey, BC, Canada V3T 1V8

RFEOI/SOQ Document Available for Download:
Review of Surrey’s Population and Employment Model (.pdf)

Addendum No. 1 (.pdf)
Issue Date: September 18, 2019

Addenda
If the City determines that an amendment is required to this RFEOI/SOQ, the City Representative will issue a written addendum by posting it on the BC Bid Website at www.bcbid.gov.bc.ca (the “BC Bid Website”) and the City Website at www.surrey.ca (the “City Website”) that will form part of this RFEOI/SOQ.  No amendment of any kind to the RFEOI/SOQ is effective unless it is posted in a formal written addendum on the City Website.  Upon submitting a Submission, Respondents will be deemed to have received notice of all addenda that are posted on the City Website.

All inquiries related to this RFEOI/SOQ. should be directed in writing to the person named below.