Public construction tenders in Canada: the open board

Most writing about the construction market talks in billions - budgets, programs, announcements. Useful for headlines, useless for a Tuesday morning bid decision. What an estimator actually needs is simpler: how much public work is out to bid right now, where, and in which trades.

We track that every day. This board was last refreshed October 2, 2026 - the live version is always free at cornerstonecontracts.com/tenders.

The board by province

Open public construction tenders in the four provinces we score matches in:

| Province | Open tenders (as of October 2, 2026) | |---|---| | Alberta | 202 | | Ontario | 158 | | British Columbia | 140 | | Saskatchewan | 132 | | Total | 632 |

One change to read these against: since this refresh the board counts only tenders carrying a construction trade classification (paving, electrical, mechanical, civil, and the rest of the trade list). The July 12 snapshot this page carried before - 2,052 across the four provinces - counted every public tender in them, construction or not, so the two are not comparable. The construction count is the one the live pages show.

A few things behind those numbers:

• Alberta leads outright, not just per capita. Provincial highway and infrastructure programs, two large cities procuring continuously, and the MASH sector (municipalities, academic institutions, schools, health) all posting through the Alberta Purchasing Connection keep the AB board the deepest in the country.
• Ontario's number understates the market's size - much Ontario work moves through buyer-specific portals and invitation-based prequalification pools, so the open-tender board is the public slice of a bigger pie.
• B.C.'s inventory arrives via MERX, Biddingo, and CanadaBuys. If you only watch one B.C. source, you are seeing a fraction of it. Our B.C. public bidding guide covers the landscape.
• Saskatchewan punches far above its weight per capita, driven by highways, Crown corporation capital work, and municipal water programs, almost all of it through a single portal. See SaskTenders vs MERX vs CanadaBuys.

The board by trade

Open tenders by primary trade classification, across all provinces in the feed:

| Trade | Open tenders (as of October 2, 2026) | |---|---| | Electrical | 249 | | Mechanical | 184 | | Paving | 84 | | Underground utilities | 79 | | Bridge | 68 | | Civil | 66 | | Roofing | 63 | | Concrete | 50 |

These eight are the top of the list, not the whole list - the feed classifies dozens of trades, from demolition to traffic control. Two patterns worth noting in October: the outdoor trades are closing with the season (paving stood at 144 open tenders on July 12 and underground utilities at 129; between September 28 and October 2 alone they lost another seven and nine), and electrical is the deepest single trade board, deeper than it was in July - substations, building systems, traffic signals, and treatment-plant controls post year-round from every level of government. Browse your own trade's live board at /for.

Velocity: the number that changes behaviour

In the seven days ending October 2, 165 new public construction tenders posted across the four provinces. A posting arrived on every weekday - typically twenty to fifty a day - and almost none on weekends.

Set that against the other clock: the median tender in our feed closes under four weeks after it posts (23.7 days, measured over everything posted in the trailing 90 days). Put the two together and the conclusion is mechanical - a contractor who checks portals monthly sees the median tender with half its window gone, or not at all. The math does not reward more discipline; it rewards consolidation. One feed, checked briefly, daily, beats twelve portals checked heroically, monthly.

The October rhythm, honestly

The board is not a straight line, and it is not one market either. The outdoor trades thin from late September as paving, concrete and underground work stops posting for the season, while the year-round trades carry the autumn board: electrical and mechanical are both deeper today than they were in July (249 against 162, and 184 against 138). A thinner outdoor board in October is not a slowing market; it is the same market moving indoors.

If you are planning your bid calendar: the paving and civil season is closing on the board, electrical and mechanical are at full depth, and every count above moves daily - which is the argument for checking a feed rather than a calendar.

How to use a board like this

Volume without filtering is just a longer to-do list. The discipline that makes 632 open tenders useful instead of paralyzing:

1. Trade fit first - only work your shop self-performs. Our go/no-go framework is the two-minute version.
2. Geography second - if mobilization eats the margin, it is someone else's job.
3. Capacity third - bonding, insurance, and schedule alongside your current book.

Three yeses, then commit fully. Anything less, close the PDF and spend the hour on a bid you can win - there are, verifiably, plenty more where that came from.

See the live board

Every number above is current as of this page's last refresh; the live counts are free to browse, no account: open tenders by province and by trade. When you want the filtering done for you - every posting scored against your trade, region, and capacity, with a drafted proposal for the ones worth chasing - start free.

Counts are point-in-time from the Cornerstone feed (postings with a closing date still ahead and a construction trade classification, aggregated from CanadaBuys, MERX, Biddingo, the Alberta Purchasing Connection, SaskTenders, and municipal portals) and move daily. Verify anything time-sensitive against the live pages and the official source each posting links to.