Analysis

The charts below are simple aggregate analyses of Government of Canada contract spending data. They are generated from the combined dataset of scraped Proactive Disclosure websites and Open Government CSV data. See the Methodology page to learn more about how this data was aggregated and analyzed.

Because the spending data represented here was normalized year-by-year (to the closest calendar year), given the limitations of the source data, the numbers below should be considered as estimated rather than actual values. Total spending amounts on a per-company and per-year basis are not published at a government-wide level by the Government of Canada.

This is a volunteer-led effort, and no guarantees are made for the accuracy of the data or the processes used to aggregate and analyze it. You can download the full dataset yourself to conduct more advanced analyses of it.

Government-wide aggregate data

Total government-wide contract and amendment entries

C1. This chart lists the total number of contract and amendment entries included in the combined dataset, by fiscal year, for the government as a whole:

View source data: Overall contract and amendment entries, by year

C2. This chart lists the same data as above, but by fiscal quarter:

View source data: Overall contract and amendment entries, by fiscal quarter

Total government-wide contract spending

C3. This chart represents the total effective value of government contracts included in the combined dataset, by calendar year, for the government as a whole:

View source data: Overall effective government-wide contract spending

This chart appears to show that total contracting spending increases year over year. But this might be due to issues with the historical data, rather than an actual trend. Be careful in interpreting any year-over-year trends displayed on this page.

Check the Purchasing Activity Reports for historical whole-of-government data on contracting totals until 2016. For example, the 2013 report shows total spending of $14.6 billion (including contracts below our $10,000 proactive disclosure threshold).

Total contract and amendment entries by department

C4. This chart lists the total number of contract and amendment entries included in the combined dataset, by department, by fiscal year:

View source data: Contract and amendment entries by department, by fiscal year

C5. This chart lists the same data as above, but by fiscal quarter:

View source data: Contract and amendment entries by department, by fiscal quarter

Total contract spending by department

C6. This chart lists the total effective value of each department’s contracts, by year:

View source data: Effective total contract spending by department, by year

Largest companies by government-wide contract spending

C7. This table lists the largest companies by total number of contract and amendment entries in the combined dataset, from 2008 to 2017:

Company name Total entries Total contracts Total amendments
CANADIAN CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES 7947 6636 1311
EXCEL HUMAN RESOURCES 5504 3932 1572
IMPERIAL OIL 5204 4957 247
XEROX 4191 3300 891
CANADIAN HEALTH CARE AGENCY 3696 1347 2349
STANTEC 3667 2919 748
ALTIS HUMAN RESOURCES 3401 2477 924
CALIAN 3134 2273 861
BELL CANADA 3070 2522 548
NORTHERN MICRO 2927 2803 124

View source data: Top 200 companies by number of contract and amendment entries

C8. This chart lists the top 10 companies by total number of contract and amendment entries, government-wide, by year:

View source data: Top 10 companies by number of contract and amendment entries, by year

C9. This table lists the largest companies by total effective contract value, government-wide, from 2008 to 2017:

Company name Total effective value (2008 to 2017)
BROOKFIELD ASSET MANAGEMENT $ 5,747,577,902.19
BELL CANADA $ 4,560,715,043.31
IBM CANADA $ 3,599,385,732.41
GENERAL DYNAMICS $ 3,215,819,837.99
D H PARTNERSHIP $ 2,600,059,418.38
MACDONALD DETTWILER AND ASSOCIATES $ 1,964,509,630.89
IMP GROUP $ 1,901,122,178.88
TELUS CANADA $ 1,679,386,449.46
ROGERS $ 1,561,771,983.62
CANADIAN CORPS OF COMMISSIONAIRES $ 1,402,409,075.97

View source data: Top 200 companies by effective contract value

C10. This chart lists the top 10 companies by total effective contract value, government-wide, by year:

View source data: Top 10 companies by effective contract value, by year

This chart may show negative values for a given year, in cases where later amendments reduced the overall value of a large contract compared to earlier entries. See the Normalizing by year methodology section for more details.

Aggregate data by department

C11. This chart lists the number of initial contract entries from [department name] that are below or above $25k, by year:

View source data: [Label]

C12. This chart lists the top 10 companies by total number of contract and amendment entries from [department name], by year:

View source data: [Label], [Label]

C13. This chart lists the top 10 companies by total effective contract value from [department name], by year:

View source data: [Label], [Label]

Aggregate data by company (200 largest companies)

C14. This chart lists departments by total number of contract and amendment entries with [company name], by year:

View source data: [Label], [Label]

C15. This chart lists departments by total effective contract value with [company name], from 2008 to 2017:

View source data: [Label], [Label]

Other analyses

You can use the combined dataset to conduct your own analyses of Government of Canada contracting data. See future improvements for reflections on potential next steps to improve this dataset and generate more detailed insights.

If you publish your own analyses using this data, please let us know!