PUBLIC SERVICE INDEX

Index › Glossary

Working definitions of every statistical term used in this release. Each definition states exactly how the measure is computed and on what denominator; each links to the release page where it appears. Where a measure depends on a coverage subset — labelled records, named-bidder tenders — the definition says so.

No-tender rate

The share of award records recorded as made without an open competitive process, among records carrying a procedure label. The overall federal figure is 29.3%; the yearly series runs 2015–2026.Used in: Federal › no-tender

Single-bid rate

The share of tenders that received exactly one bid, among tenders where bidder counts are published. The Quebec corpus-wide figure is 67.4%.Used in: Competition

Average bidders per tender

The mean number of distinct bidders submitting to a tender. Quebec tenders average 1.98 overall, but 3.14 for works against 1.78 for services.Used in: Competition

Vendor concentration

The share of total value (or count) won by the highest-value vendors. The top 100 federal vendors take 62.6% of value on 12.8% of awards.Used in: Federal › vendors

Value band

A fixed award-size interval used to distribute contract counts. Bands run under $25K, $25K–$100K, $100K–$1M, $1M–$10M, and over $10M.Used in: Federal

Award record

A single published contract award above the reporting threshold — the atomic unit of the federal corpus (1,313,281 records since 2004).Used in: Methodology

Distinct vendor

A unique supplier name as published, without legal-name normalization. Variants such as differing punctuation count separately — a caveat on all vendor counts.Used in: Federal › vendors

Partial year

A fiscal year whose records are incomplete at the compilation cut-off. 2026 figures across all series are partial and marked as such.Used in: Federal

Vendor home province

The province inferred from the vendor's postal code on an award record, where published. Attribution covers 464,227 records and 63.2% of value.Used in: Provincial

Procurement method

The procedure label on a tender: direct (chosen supplier, no open call), open, limited, or selective. In Quebec's method-labelled records, direct awards are 53.3%.Used in: Competition › quebec

Bid challenge

A complaint to the Canadian International Trade Tribunal alleging a federal procurement breached trade-agreement rules. The registry holds 2,043 documents since 1990.Used in: Bid challenges

Serial challenger

A complainant appearing repeatedly in the challenge registry. The twelve most frequent account for 120 documents — 5.9% of the registry.Used in: Bid challenges

Set-aside designation

An Indigenous-business flag recorded on an award (VS or MS) at publication. Designated records total $4.63B, 0.38% of lifetime value.Used in: Federal › indigenous

Competition intensity

How contested a market's tenders are, measured by average bidders and the single-bid rate. Works tenders are roughly twice as contested as services.Used in: Competition

Named-bidder coverage

The subset of tenders on which bidder identities are published — 405,956 Quebec calls, 2021–2026. All bidder-level statistics are bounded by this coverage.Used in: Competition › quebec

Definitions are release-stable: a term keeps its definition across releases, and any change is noted in the release notes.