Which Quebec buyers actually get competition
The 13 largest Quebec buyers by tender volume with named-bidder detail — a 55-point spread in single-bid rates between the extremes.
The table
| Buyer | Tenders | Avg bidders | Single-bid | Single-bid tenders |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable (Direction de l'administration des appels d'offres publics) | 6,569 | 2.74 | 37.3% | 2,450 |
| Ville de Québec | 6,365 | 2.34 | 57.2% | 3,641 |
| Ville de Laval | 6,185 | 2.29 | 64.4% | 3,983 |
| Société de transport de Montréal | 5,866 | 1.44 | 84.9% | 4,980 |
| Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable (Direction générale de la gestion contractuelle) | 4,409 | 2.53 | 50.6% | 2,231 |
| Ministère des Transports (Direction de l'administration des appels d'offres publics) | 4,397 | 1.87 | 69.9% | 3,074 |
| Université Laval | 4,339 | 1.45 | 85.3% | 3,701 |
| Ville de Gatineau. | 4,060 | 2.26 | 50.1% | 2,034 |
| Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de l'Estrie - Centre Hospitalier Universitaire de Sherbrooke - CHUS | 4,034 | 1.21 | 92.6% | 3,735 |
| Ministère des Transports et de la mobilité durable (Direction de l'administration des appels d'offres publics) | 3,727 | 1.98 | 65.9% | 2,456 |
| Université McGill | 3,720 | 1.54 | 81.1% | 3,017 |
| Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Mauricie-et-du-Centre-du-Québec (CIUSSS MCQ) | 3,232 | 1.42 | 85.0% | 2,747 |
| Société québécoise des infrastructures | 3,147 | 2.86 | 41.0% | 1,290 |
Two clusters
Contested processes. Transport buyers and the Société québécoise des infrastructures run the most competitive shops: Ministère des Transports et de la Mobilité durable averages 2.74 bidders with a 37.3% single-bid rate, and SQI sits at 41.0% on 2.86 average bidders. Civil-works procurement with open calls and published plans — this is what functioning competition looks like in the corpus.
Single-bid institutions. At the other end: the Estrie CIUSSS–CHUS (92.6% single-bid, 1.21 average bidders), Université Laval (64.4%), the STM (84.9%), and McGill (81.1%). Health, transit, and universities buy specialized goods and services from thin local markets — the corpus shows the rate, not the reason: specialized requirements, pre-qualified pools, and low market interest all produce the same single-bid signature.
Cities sit in between and differ: Quebec City runs at 57.2%, Laval at 64.4%, Gatineau at 50.1% — same legal framework, materially different outcomes.
Buyer names as published. The transport ministry appears under three administrative directorates with overlapping mandates (see methods); each row is reported as published rather than merged.
Citation format
pubsec/data 2026.10, https://pubsecdata.org/findings/quebec-buyers