The Public Procurement Barometer

Why a monthly barometer

Québec's public market represents tens of billions of dollars in contracts every year, but its public measurement is slow: the official reports come out once a year, long after the fact, and reason at the scale of the state, not that of an SME wondering whether it's worth bidding this month. The Barometer fills that gap. By reading the SEAO open data as it's published, it gives a recent, regular benchmark, in language a business can use.

Each edition starts over from the raw data rather than commenting on the previous ones. We count one contract per award process (not per contract line, which would distort the share of mutual agreement), we date each indicator by its real period, and we flag the current month as provisional until every publication has come in. What can't be measured reliably isn't put forward: the full method is in our editorial policy.

For an SME, the point is concrete: knowing what share of contracts actually goes through an open call for tenders rather than by mutual agreement, what contract size to expect, and which sectors are publishing the most right now. Three questions that guide where to focus your bidding effort. The Barometer extends our data analyses with a running read, month after month.

Previous editions