Who awards the money
National Defence alone accounts for 38.9% of lifetime federal contract value. The 25 largest awarding organizations, ranked.
The 25 largest federal awarding organizations by lifetime contract value, 2004–2026, with award counts and average award size. Department codes are shown as published in the source records.
| # | Department (code as published) | Value | Share of total | Awards | Mean award |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | National Defence dnd-mdn | $471.4B | 38.9% | 362,845 | $1.3M |
| 2 | Public Services and Procurement pwgsc-tpsgc | $239.3B | 19.7% | 73,111 | $3.3M |
| 3 | Shared Services Canada ssc-spc | $137.1B | 11.3% | 29,177 | $4.7M |
| 4 | Fisheries and Oceans dfo-mpo | $64.5B | 5.3% | 117,545 | $549K |
| 5 | Canadian Space Agency csa-asc | $41.6B | 3.4% | 4,322 | $9.6M |
| 6 | Employment and Social Development esdc-edsc | $39.5B | 3.3% | 40,131 | $984K |
| 7 | Infrastructure Canada infc | $25.1B | 2.1% | 1,304 | $19.2M |
| 8 | Public Health Agency phac-aspc | $16.9B | 1.4% | 10,033 | $1.7M |
| 9 | Parks Canada pc | $16.1B | 1.3% | 61,027 | $264K |
| 10 | Canada Revenue Agency cra-arc | $16.0B | 1.3% | 43,316 | $369K |
| 11 | Canada Border Services Agency cbsa-asfc | $15.3B | 1.3% | 12,653 | $1.2M |
| 12 | Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship cic | $14.5B | 1.2% | 16,656 | $869K |
| 13 | Correctional Service Canada csc-scc | $14.5B | 1.2% | 58,955 | $246K |
| 14 | Royal Canadian Mounted Police rcmp-grc | $14.1B | 1.2% | 36,939 | $381K |
| 15 | Global Affairs Canada dfatd-maecd | $11.3B | 0.9% | 79,173 | $143K |
| 16 | Environment and Climate Change ec | $8.8B | 0.7% | 69,222 | $127K |
| 17 | National Research Council nrc-cnrc | $7.6B | 0.6% | 50,045 | $152K |
| 18 | Veterans Affairs Canada vac-acc | $7.3B | 0.6% | 5,091 | $1.4M |
| 19 | Health Canada hc-sc | $6.4B | 0.5% | 14,647 | $436K |
| 20 | Treasury Board Secretariat tbs-sct | $6.4B | 0.5% | 7,999 | $798K |
| 21 | Transport Canada tc | $5.4B | 0.4% | 23,253 | $230K |
| 22 | Innovation, Science and Economic Development ic | $4.8B | 0.4% | 22,916 | $212K |
| 23 | Natural Resources Canada nrcan-rncan | $3.9B | 0.3% | 32,057 | $121K |
| 24 | Elections Canada elections | $2.7B | 0.2% | 3,606 | $762K |
| 25 | Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada aafc-aac | $2.6B | 0.2% | 19,611 | $131K |
Concentration at the buying end
National Defence alone accounts for $471.4B — 38.9% of lifetime value on 27.6% of records — more than the next three organizations combined ($440.9B). The five largest awarding organizations take 78.7% of all value; the top ten take 88.1%. The tail is administrative rather than operational: fifteen of the twenty-five departments listed award less than $16 billion each over twenty-three years.
Average award size separates operational buyers from program administrators. Shared Services Canada, the government's IT consolidator, averages $4.7M per award across 29,177 records; the Canadian Space Agency $9.6M; Infrastructure Canada $19.2M over just 1,304 agreements — transfer-style contracting rather than repetitive purchasing. Fisheries and Oceans, by contrast, spreads $64.5B across 117,545 awards averaging $549K.
Public Services and Procurement Canada appears as a department in its own right; as the central purchasing agent it also executes contracting on behalf of other organizations, so its $239.3 billion understates its coordination role across the corpus.
Award feeds by department are tracked live in PubSec.Pro.