Methodology
How the Publicus Procurement Awards are chosen
The awards are unsolicited and based entirely on public procurement disclosure data. We lead with transparency so anyone can verify the math behind a winner.
Data source
Federal procurement disclosure
Contract data comes from the Government of Canada’s Proactive Disclosure of Contracts and CanadaBuys. Every line item in our ranking corresponds to a contract published by a federal department under the disclosure rules that govern awards above the $10,000 threshold.
Vendor names are standardised so that subsidiaries, name variants, and shortened forms are grouped under the correct parent company.
Time window
Trailing twelve months
Rankings are calculated over the trailing twelve months for FY25-26. Each winner’s total federal spend, contract count, and top-buyer share reflect that twelve-month window. The window is fixed at publication, so the page numbers are stable even as new contracts post.
Federal procurement is seasonal. A trailing twelve-month window smooths out year-end ramps and budget-cycle effects, which makes year-on-year comparisons honest and protects against awards being driven by a single quarter.
Taxonomy
How categories map to the Publicus taxonomy
Every contract is classified against the Publicus taxonomy and harmonised against government procurement classification codes. The award categories on this site are the top-level Publicus categories, so each award covers a meaningful slice of federal spend rather than a narrow procurement code.
Where a vendor is active in more than one category, their award attaches to the category where they generate the most federal spend.
What we exclude
Cases we deliberately leave out
Sole-source-dominated categories. Where a category is essentially one vendor with no competitive runners-up at any size, we do not issue an award.
Categories with thin data. Where the top five vendors collectively account for fewer than ten contracts in the window, we hold the category back to the next slate.
Vendors with uncertain identity. If a vendor’s identity is ambiguous — for example a likely duplicate or unclear company name — they are excluded until the identity is resolved.
Self-nominations and paid placements. The Publicus Procurement Awards are not for sale. Every winner is selected from data; nobody pays to appear.
Updates
How the slate evolves
The FY25-26 slate is the first issue of the Publicus Procurement Awards. v1 covers federal contracts only; provincial and municipal cuts are planned for the next slate.
If a winner is later affected by a contract amendment or data correction, we will update the page and note the change.
Editorial criteria