08 — The amounts
What a public contract amounts to
The median contract awarded in 2025 was worth $69K. From 2023 to 2025, between $36.1B and $41.2B was awarded each year, not counting the ten largest contracts, which weigh up to 20% of a year.
Awarded is not spent: a framework agreement records its ceiling, which may never be reached. These amounts are an order of magnitude, not a trend: from one year to the next, a few very large contracts are enough to move the total.
| Year | Contracts | Median contract (2025 $) | Total without the ten largest | Share of the ten largest |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 45,327 | $76K | $30.8B | 14% |
| 2022 | 45,284 | $66K | $27.5B | 19% |
| 2023 | 52,890 | $67K | $40.5B | 16% |
| 2024 | 57,423 | $72K | $41.2B | 20% |
| 2025 | 53,017 | $69K | $36.1B | 16% |
In constant 2025 dollars (Québec CPI, Statistique Canada, 18-10-0004-01). The 45 largest contracts, and those furthest from their estimate, were checked one by one. One of them, whose published amount is plainly wrong, is left out of every figure.
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