The SME guide to winning public tenders in Québec
SEAO, bids, contract awards: Québec’s public procurement system, explained clearly for SMEs, without the jargon.
Adjudica analysis · SEAO data
1% of winning suppliers take 28% of contracts
About 433,000 bids analyzed: who lands public contracts, where concentration is strongest, and what it changes for an SME that bids.
Read the analysisin public contracts awarded each year in Québec
Ref. Conseil du trésor · 2023-24
of that value goes to Québec businesses
Ref. Conseil du trésor · 2023-24
of contracts are awarded by mutual agreement, within reach of SMEs
Ref. Adjudica analysis · SEAO · 2021-2023 · recalculated 2026-08-13
What the data shows
Original SEAO analysis you won’t find anywhere else, built from the Québec government’s open data.
Public tenders: the incumbent supplier loses 44% of the calls it defends
Adjudica analysis of 54,500 re-competitions on SEAO: the previous winner comes back in only 31% of cycles, and when it does, it loses 44% of the time. The incumbent's edge sector by sector, and how to read it before you bid.
A single bidder: 20.4% of public notices, 57.6% of invitation-only tenders
88,000 competitive tenders 2021-2024: a single bid on 20.4% of public notices and 57.6% of invitation-only tenders.
Mutual Agreement: the Most Closed Public Sectors (and How an SME Gets In)
From 11% in civil engineering to 93% in health, the share of contracts awarded without a call for tenders varies enormously by sector. Our analysis of 160,508 contracts, and what it changes for your SME.
Data: “Système électronique d’appel d’offres (SEAO)”, Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, on Données Québec under the CC BY 4.0 licence; Adjudica analysis and calculations.
Data: City of Montréal contract records (council and agglomeration, boroughs, public servants), released as open data under the CC BY 4.0 licence; Adjudica analysis and calculations.
Latest articles
See allConcrete analysis to decide what to bid on, and how, with no surprises.
What It Costs to Bid on a Public Tender, and When to Walk Away
The cost of a bid comes mostly down to your hours. How to put a number on them, and which signals in the public file tell you to sit this one out.
Québec Public Procurement Barometer, September 2026: What You Count on SEAO Is Not Everything That Was Awarded
September edition. Half of contracts show up on SEAO within about three weeks of being awarded, but at least 6% wait more than a year. What that changes about how you read the registry.
How Many Québec Public Contracts Are Awarded by Mutual Agreement Above the Tendering Threshold?
Over 2021-2025, 13,180 contracts of at least $150,000 were awarded by mutual agreement by bodies subject to the Act respecting contracting by public bodies. What that figure measures, and what it does not.
Construction Materials Tenders in Québec: Why You Are More Often the Only Bidder Than in Civil Engineering
On public notices for construction materials, a single bid is far more frequent than on civil engineering or building notices. For a supplier weighing whether to respond, that is the figure that matters.
Where to start
Four steps to go from “I know nothing about this” to your first bid submitted.
Analysis for your business
The tender analysis
An open tender you are targeting, analyzed. The analysis covers the buyer's award history, the competitors in the category and the head-to-heads already documented. Delivered within one business day.
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Québec public procurement, decoded
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