Competition intensity in Quebec tenders
What 405,956 tenders with named-bidder detail say about who actually shows up to bid — by category, year, method, buyer, and bidder.
By category
Classification covers 373,663 tenders. Construction is the only category where competition is the norm; in services and goods, a single responsive bid is the modal outcome — 75.4% and 74.4% single-bid respectively.
| Category | Tenders | Share | Avg bidders | Single-bid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Works / construction | 78,474 | 21.0% | 3.14 | 34.6% |
| Services | 184,316 | 49.3% | 1.78 | 75.4% |
| Goods | 110,873 | 29.7% | 1.61 | 74.4% |
By year
The single-bid rate drifted upward from 70.6% in 2021 to 74.0% in 2023. The 2025 row (108,260 tenders, more than double any prior year) reflects a step-change in coverage of the underlying tender bulletin; read level shifts across that boundary with care.
| Year | Tenders | Avg bidders | Single-bid |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 33,588 | 1.83 | 70.6% |
| 2022 | 49,679 | 1.75 | 72.7% |
| 2023 | 44,132 | 1.71 | 74.0% |
| 2024 | 41,509 | 1.86 | 70.1% |
| 2025 | 108,260 | 2.31 | 56.6% |
| 2026 | 112,657 | 1.96 | 71.0% |
By contract method
Method labels cover 400,081 tenders. Just over half are direct awards — no open call — which bounds how much competition is even possible.
| Method | Tenders | Share | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|
| direct | 213,328 | 53.3% | awarded without an open call for tenders |
| open | 137,810 | 34.4% | open call — any supplier may bid |
| limited | 46,369 | 11.6% | invitation restricted to a pre-qualified set |
| selective | 2,574 | 0.6% | selective invitation from a qualified pool |
The most active bidders
Engineering consultancies dominate the bid-volume table. Among the 25 most active bidders, win rates range from 10.5% (CONSTRUCTION L. MORIN INC.: 108 wins on 1,025 bids) to 70.5% (SOFTCHOICE LP: 633 on 898). High-volume bidding at a one-in-ten win rate and moderate volume near a coin flip are both viable strategies — in road construction and professional services respectively.
| Bidder | Bids | Wins | Win rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eurovia Québec Construction Inc. | 3,159 | 798 | 25.3% |
| LES SERVICES EXP INC. | 3,075 | 1,490 | 48.5% |
| WSP CANADA INC. | 2,862 | 1,224 | 42.8% |
| CIMA+ S.E.N.C. | 2,787 | 1,237 | 44.4% |
| STANTEC EXPERTS-CONSEILS LTÉE | 2,152 | 943 | 43.8% |
| SINTRA INC. | 1,881 | 519 | 27.6% |
| BOUTHILLETTE PARIZEAU INC. | 1,841 | 964 | 52.4% |
| GBI EXPERTS-CONSEILS INC. | 1,812 | 922 | 50.9% |
| Englobe Corp. | 1,796 | 1,132 | 63.0% |
| ITI INC. | 1,651 | 1,137 | 68.9% |
| FNX-INNOV INC. | 1,563 | 629 | 40.2% |
| TÉTRA TECH QI INC. | 1,525 | 940 | 61.6% |
| GROUPE COLAS QUÉBEC INC. | 1,498 | 361 | 24.1% |
| ROXBORO EXCAVATION INC. | 1,469 | 236 | 16.1% |
| MICRO LOGIC SAINTE-FOY LTÉE | 1,367 | 873 | 63.9% |
Bids and wins counted within tenders carrying full named-bidder lists. Vendor totals below are counted across all classified awards, so they differ slightly in scope.
Most-winning suppliers (all classified awards)
| Supplier | Wins |
|---|---|
| LES SERVICES EXP INC. | 1,460 |
| WSP CANADA INC. | 1,193 |
| CIMA+ S.E.N.C. | 1,188 |
| ITI INC. | 1,121 |
| Englobe Corp. | 1,100 |
| STANTEC EXPERTS-CONSEILS LTÉE | 915 |
| TÉTRA TECH QI INC. | 910 |
| BOUTHILLETTE PARIZEAU INC. | 907 |
| GBI EXPERTS-CONSEILS INC. | 898 |
| MICRO LOGIC SAINTE-FOY LTÉE | 869 |
| Eurovia Québec Construction Inc. | 722 |
| La Compagnie de Téléphone Bell du Canada ou Bell Canada | 698 |
| SOFTCHOICE LP | 622 |
| LOGIBEC INC. | 621 |
| FNX-INNOV INC. | 608 |
Buyer-level differences
Competition is not uniform across buyers: single-bid rates among the 13 largest range from 37.3% to 92.6%. The full table is in Quebec buyers.
Measuring tender competition at the province level hides most of the signal. The buyer and the category jointly determine whether a second bid arrives at all.
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Citation format
pubsec/data 2026.10, https://pubsecdata.org/findings/competition