Québec public procurement, in data
Adjudica analyzes the SEAO open data published by the Government of Québec: hundreds of thousands of contracts and bids, cross-referenced to answer the questions SMEs actually ask. Every figure is sourced and each analysis documents its method.
of public contracts awarded without a call for tenders
Ref. 160,508 contracts · 2021-2023 · recalculated 2026-08-13of calls for tenders attract only one bidder
Ref. 88,000 tenders · 2021-2024 · recalculated 2026-08-13Data: “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.
Featured analyses
Analysis · 8 min
Québec Public Procurement: 1% of Winning Suppliers Take 28% of SEAO Contracts
The top 1% of most frequent winning suppliers takes 28% of SEAO contracts and about 31% of their value (2022-2025). What it means for an SME.
Read the analysisAnalysis · 12 min
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.
Read the analysisMonthly publication
The Public Procurement Barometer
Every month, a snapshot of Québec's public contracts: the share awarded without a call for tenders, the median contract, the most active sectors. From the SEAO open data.
All analyses
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.
Public IT Tenders in Québec: Why You See So Few of Them
Of the eight sectors we measured, information processing and telecommunications shows the smallest share of awards made by tender. But when a notice comes out, competition is real.
Transport and Moving Tenders in Québec: Why So Many Draw a Single Bid
Of the eight sectors we measured, transport and moving shows the highest share of public notices that received a single bid. For a firm hesitating to respond, that is the figure that matters.
Building Contracts in Québec: How Close Public Tenders Actually Are
When at least two opening prices are published, the median gap between the two lowest bids is 9.1%. What 32,758 building contracts reveal about real competition in Québec.
Maintenance and Repair Contracts in Québec: The Least Concentrated Awards of the Eight Sectors We Measured
657 firms share half the tenders, the highest of the eight sectors we measured. One tender in three receives a single bid.
Civil Engineering Contracts in Québec: Four Bids per Tender, and a Median Gap of 7.8%
Four bids per tender, a median gap of 7.8%, and nearly nine contracts in ten put out to competition. What civil engineering contracts awarded in Québec reveal.
Computer Hardware Contracts in Québec: 30 Firms for Half the Tenders
Most purchases never go through a call for tenders, and half the tenders are shared by 30 firms. What computer hardware contracts in Québec reveal.
Roadwork, Waste and Water: Competition Is the Rule, but Bidders Are Few
Snow removal, waste collection, street sweeping, water treatment. 61% of these contracts are awarded after competition, and 33.0% of tenders receive a single 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.
Public Procurement in Québec: Nearly 6 in 10 Contracts Without a Call for Tenders, but Only 1 Dollar in 4
Adjudica analysis of 160,508 public contracts 2021-2023: 58.9% without a call for tenders by count, but only 25.4% by value. Why, in which sectors, and what it means for SMEs.
Québec public procurement strategy: 2026 review
The 2022-2026 strategy wrapped up in March 2026 and the 2026-2030 strategy is out. Here's what changed for Québec SMEs, the concrete results, and what the new strategy plans.
Our method
Our analyses draw on the SEAO open datasets published on Données Québec. Each article states its scope, its cross-references and its limits, including what the data cannot measure. The full detail is in our editorial policy.
Method note, version 3 (13 August 2026)
Version 3 does not introduce windows by award date: the figures recalculated on 10 August 2026 under version 2 of our method already used them, and our note has said so since that date. Version 3 extends this convention to all our contract figures and recalculates them on data as of 7 August 2026. A contract is attached to the year in which it was awarded, not the year its result was published; counting remains by unique process. Our analyses built from the bids filed remain tied to the date the notice was published. Figures published under an earlier version remain readable with their own calculation date: we do not rewrite a past figure, we tell you which one you are reading.
The monthly Barometer is an exception: it files each contract in the month its result was published on SEAO, not in the month it was awarded. When SEAO completes a notice that is already published, the award month of the contract can change. On a monthly series, a contract already counted would then move from one month to another, and the published months would no longer be comparable with one another.
Method note, version 2
Figures within the certified scope recalculated on 10 August 2026 (method v2), on data as of 1 August 2026. The others keep the value of their last generation, stated in each analysis. Windows by award date; counting by process (one contract = one notice); competitive universe according to the award method declared on SEAO. Some amount indicators have been withdrawn from our pages pending a source consolidation. Open data from SEAO, Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, CC BY 4.0 licence.
Data reuse and licence
Adjudica reuses open data released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 (CC BY 4.0) licence. The figures shown result from our own extraction, cleaning and analysis; they are not official publications of the organizations responsible for the datasets.
Data source
Dataset: “Système électronique d’appel d’offres (SEAO)”, published by the Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor (Québec Treasury Board Secretariat), released on Données Québec under the CC BY 4.0 licence.
Processing: data extracted, cleaned and analysed by Adjudica; the figures shown result from this processing and are not an official SEAO publication. See our data.
Data source
Datasets: City of Montréal contract records, released as open data by the Ville de Montréal under the CC BY 4.0 licence: city council and agglomeration council contracts, borough council contracts and contracts authorized by public servants.
Processing: data extracted, cleaned and analysed by Adjudica; the figures shown result from this processing and are not an official publication of the Ville de Montréal. See our data.
This analysis also exists for the tender you are targeting: the tender analysis, $190 CAD + taxes, delivered in one business day.
Receive new analyses by email
One email with every new data analysis. Unsubscribe in one click.