Public tenders — Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean
About 1,167 public tenders a year are open to a company in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, which makes it the 11th region of 17 by volume. It sees 3.2 bidders per tender on average, against 3.6 for Quebec as a whole.
01 — The market in figures
- Open right now
- 95
- Reading of August 1, 2026 — figure possibly out of date
- Tenders per year
- 1,167
- 4.0% of Quebec
- Active companies
- 1,240
- Having bid since 2021
- Median contract
- $380K
- Median of awarded amounts
The populated corridor, enlarged — eight of the ten most active regions fit inside this frame. The regions in it are clickable, as on the map.
- 0–871
- 872–1 087
- 1 088–1 298
- 1 299–1 615
- 1 616–4 018
Quantile scale: each step holds a comparable number of regions.
Click a region to open its report.
Territorial boundaries: Données Québec, « Découpages administratifs » (SDA) 1/100 000, CC-BY 4.0, simplified for display. Labrador is outside Quebec and appears as a notch; the Côte-Nord and the Gaspésie extend over their gulf waters, as in the official boundaries.
Tenders published per yearThe current year is partial — it stops at July 24, 2026 — and its bar is left hollow for that reason. A notice naming several regions is counted in each: these bars compare from one region to another but do not add up to a Quebec total. The series starts in 2021, when SEAO began publishing notices in their current form.
- 8762021
- 1,1732022
- 1,2482023
- 1,2632024
- 1,2752025
- 8602026
03 — What goes out to tenderThe figure to the right of the left-hand bar is the share of tenders; on the right, the category's median estimated value where it is published. The estimates are medians and never totals: the estimated-amount column contains data-entry errors large enough to dominate a sum on their own.
By nature
- Approvisionnement (biens)2 76141%
- Travaux de construction1 80527%
- Services professionnels1 02515%
- Services de nature technique1 00915%
- Autres951%
By SEAO category
- Bâtiments902$398K
- Produits et spécialités chimiques870$145K
- Ouvrages de génie civil796$587K
- Services d’architecture et d’ingénierie332$230K
- Entretien, réparation, modification, réfection et installation de biens et d’équipement292$290K
- Services publics251$791K
- Fourniture et équipement médicaux et produits pharmaceutiques222$594K
- Traitement de l’information et services de télécommunications connexes190$110K
- Matériel informatique et logiciel189$271K
- Équipement de transport et pièces de rechange182$145K
- Véhicules spéciaux172$311K
- Matériaux de construction159$145K
04 — How many competitors to expectThe share held by the four most active is computed on the NUMBER of contracts won, not on the amounts. A share computed on amounts moves by a factor of two depending on whether one very large project was awarded during the period, which measures the capital plan rather than the competition. These figures describe the structure of the market — its size, its remoteness, the number of companies able to answer — and nothing else.
- Bidders per tender
- 3.2
- Quebec: 3.6
- Tenders with a single bid
- 17.7%
- Quebec: 17.3%
- Companies that won a contract
- 824
- Out of 1,470 that bid
- Share held by the four most active
- 11.0%
- Quebec: 9.5%
How intense the competition is there is close to the Quebec average, at 3.2 bidders per tender. Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean ranks 11th of 17 regions for the average number of bidders.
05 — Starting to bid here
What happened to the companies that filed their first bid in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, year by year.
- New companies per year
- 147
- First bid in the region
- Already came from elsewhere
- 61%
- Active in another region before
- Still active 3 years on
- 43%
- At least one bid within 3 years
- Bids before a first contract
- 2
- Median, companies having bid 3 times or more
Win rate by tenureThe two columns have to be read together. The raw rate almost everywhere gives the impression that new companies do better than established ones. That is an artefact: a company appears in the data only when it chooses to bid, it picks a tender that suits it, and one that bid once and won once keeps a 100% rate forever. In regions where many tenders receive a single bid, “winning” often means “being the only one who turned up”. The right-hand column keeps only the genuinely contested tenders and is the one to rely on.
| Years since the first bid | Bids | Raw rate | Rate on tenders with 3 bidders or more |
|---|---|---|---|
| First year | 1,861 | 37% | 26% |
| 1 year | 769 | 32% | 24% |
| 2 years | 681 | 30% | 22% |
| 3 years | 649 | 34% | 28% |
| 4 years | 722 | 30% | 22% |
| 5 years | 759 | 28% | 22% |
| 6 years | 725 | 33% | 26% |
What became of the recent cohorts“Still active” means having filed at least one bid in the region over the following 3 years. A company that wins a multi-year contract and legitimately stops bidding for its duration therefore counts as inactive — the measure does not tell the two apart. Cohorts older than 2016 are excluded: a company already active before the data begins looks like a newcomer.
| First bid in | Companies | Still active over 3 years | Won a contract |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2019 | 177 | 52% | 69% |
| 2020 | 166 | 40% | 52% |
| 2021 | 93 | 39% | 59% |
| 2022 | 65 | 51% | 55% |
| 2023 | 235 | 32% | 56% |
06 — When the tenders come outCumulative over the last 6 years, by month of publication. The month a notice appears is not the month the work happens: a summer job goes out to tender in the spring.
Construction is seasonal in Quebec and so are the notices. The busiest month for construction work in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean is May.
- January517of which 114 in construction
- February609of which 187 in construction
- March736of which 231 in construction
- April745of which 254 in construction
- May693of which 286 in construction
- June664of which 202 in construction
- July667of which 140 in construction
- August467of which 116 in construction
- September383of which 88 in construction
- October425of which 66 in construction
- November477of which 71 in construction
- December312of which 50 in construction
07 — What is open, what is comingA contract reaching its end date is not an announced tender. Some are extended, some renewed with no new notice, some not replaced at all — SEAO does not link a renewal to its predecessor. What is asserted here and nothing more: 367 contracts reach their end date in the next 12 months in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.
- Open right now
- 95
- Reading of August 1, 2026 — figure possibly out of date
- Contracts ending within 12 months
- 367
- Scheduled end of term
- Value of those contracts
- $299.3M
- Median $231K
- Active companies
- 1,240
- Potential competition
The next to close
| Tender | Buyer | Closes |
|---|---|---|
| Équipements informatiques usagésMatériel informatique et logiciel | Centre d'acquisitions gouvernementales | August 14, 2026 |
| Fruits et légumes frais et transformésAlimentation | CIUSSS du Saguenay - Lac-Saint-Jean | August 14, 2026 |
| Fourniture et installation d'équipement de déphosphatation au site des étangs aéréesOuvrages de génie civil | Municipalité de L'Ascension de Notre-Seigneur. | August 17, 2026 |
| MODIFICATION AU FEU DE CIRCULATION DE L'INTERSECTION DU BOULEVARD RENÉ-LÉVESQUE ET DE LA RUE SAINTE-ÉMILIE / Arrondissement de JonquièreOuvrages de génie civil | Ville de Saguenay | August 17, 2026 |
| RÉFECTION DE LA PISTE CYCLABLE 1ERE RUE / Arrondissement de La BaieOuvrages de génie civil | Ville de Saguenay | August 17, 2026 |
| Services professionnels en ingénierie - BILAN D'ÉTAT DE L'USINE DE FILTRATION / Arrondissement de ChicoutimiServices d’architecture et d’ingénierie | Ville de Saguenay | August 17, 2026 |
| Réfection du chemin David et de la rue du MoulinOuvrages de génie civil | Municipalité du Lac-Supérieur | August 17, 2026 |
| Affrètement d'hélicoptère sur demande - Programme Classe D/HEC | Hydro-Québec. | August 17, 2026 |
| Contrat à exécution sur demande d'un entrepreneur en climatisation pour les postes de contrôle routier QuébecBâtiments | Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec . | August 17, 2026 |
| Spécialiste UiPath SéniorTraitement de l’information et services de télécommunications connexes | CIUSSS du Centre-Sud-de-l'Île-de-Montréal | August 18, 2026 |
| Développement - Phase 1AOuvrages de génie civil | Pekuakamiulnuatsh Takuhikan | August 18, 2026 |
| Provincial - Entretien préventif et correctif sur demande des systèmes de détection de gaz des installations d’Hydro-QuébecEntretien, réparation, modification, réfection et installation de biens et d’équipement | Hydro-Québec. | August 18, 2026 |
Where the contracts are ending
- Entretien, réparation, modification, réfection et installation de biens et d’équipement73$12.8M
- Bâtiments69$143.5M
- Ouvrages de génie civil47$82M
- Services d’architecture et d’ingénierie28$7.6M
- Services publics21$11M
- Véhicules spéciaux17$6.5M
- Matériaux de construction11$3.7M
- Contrôle de la qualité, essais et inspections et services de représentants techniques9$3.5M
- Machinerie et outils9$1.1M
- Produits finis9$1.6M
Follow this market
Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean's tenders keep being published. Offra scores them one by one for your company, from your own record at SEAO: on each, a verdict and the five factors behind it — not a list of notices to sort through.
For a single notice there is also the one-off report: the winning price range, the number of bidders to expect, the likely competitors and the buyer's profile. See what the report contains.
08 — Method and sources
Everything above is computed from the notices published in the Quebec government's electronic tendering system. No company declares anything to us, and no figure on this page comes from a model: these are counts, medians and shares.
Two denominators, and they do not agree. Volume, buyers, sectors and seasonality cover the 6,695 notices published for Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean since 2021, of which 3,496 named only this region. Competitors, how intense the competition is, and the entry paths cover a narrower population: the 2,462 tenders since 2015 whose bids are published with amounts, which is 7,888 bids from 1,470 companies. The two totals differ because they measure two different things.
A region of delivery, not an address. A notice is attached to Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean when it declares a delivery there — not when the buyer or the company has its head office there. The two often differ: a ministry based in Quebec City has work carried out across the province.
Amounts. Amounts are medians. The estimated-value column contains a tail of data-entry errors large enough to dominate a sum — a single parking-lot snow removal notice carries an estimate of 3.8 billion — so no ranking on this page is based on a dollar total.
Rebuilt on August 14, 2026. Data as of July 24, 2026.