The verdict in three sentences
For a public agency website in Montreal, a realistic 2026 budget ranges from 60,000 to 200,000 CAD, with 4 to 6 months from the tender notice to launch. The quality of your tender documents drives the quality of bids: a vague specification attracts incomparable proposals and costly change orders. Weight technical quality at 60 to 70 %, require Law 25 compliance, and make sure your own staff can update the site without depending on the vendor.
The budget and the line items to plan
An institutional website is more than design. The tender must cover hosting, training, maintenance and warranty, or those items come back as change orders. The ranges below are 2026 ballpark figures for the Quebec market.
| Line item | 2026 range (CAD) | Comment |
|---|---|---|
| Visual design and web style guide | 8,000 to 25,000 | Mockups, mobile layouts |
| Development and CMS (30 to 80 pages) | 25,000 to 90,000 | French first, English version |
| Business modules (news, tenders, documents) | 10,000 to 35,000 | Search, downloads |
| Hosting for 3 years (Canadian cloud) | 6,000 to 18,000 | Backups, SSL, data stored in Canada |
| Staff training | 2,000 to 8,000 | 2 to 5 sessions |
| Maintenance and 12-month warranty | 9,000 to 24,000 | Security updates |
| Indicative total | 60,000 to 200,000 | Before taxes |
Hosting deserves an explicit decision in the tender. Quebec's Law 25 requires a privacy impact assessment before personal information is communicated outside the province, which pushes many public bodies towards Canadian data centres. Government web accessibility standards also apply, so make WCAG conformance a contractual requirement.
Award criteria and weighting
Quebec's Act respecting contracts by public bodies allows quality-based evaluation for professional services, combining a quality score and the price. For a digital project, picking the lowest price often leads to incomplete delivery.
| Criterion | Recommended weight | What is evaluated |
|---|---|---|
| Understanding of needs and methodology | 15 to 20 % | Schedule, workshops, risk management |
| Similar references | 10 to 15 % | 2 to 3 public sector sites delivered, reachable contacts |
| Proposed team | 10 to 15 % | Project lead, senior developer, designer |
| Technical solution and security | 15 to 20 % | CMS, mobile performance, backups, HTTPS |
| Accessibility and editorial autonomy | 5 to 10 % | WCAG conformance, keyboard navigation, training |
| Price | 30 to 40 % | Total 3-year cost, not just development |
Set a minimum quality score, for example 70 out of 100, below which the price envelope is not opened. This filters out under-resourced bids.
A typical procurement timeline
Allow 3 to 4 weeks to write and approve the tender documents, a minimum publication period on SEAO (often 15 to 30 days), 2 to 3 weeks of evaluation, then 1 to 2 weeks for contract approval. Delivery then takes 10 to 14 weeks. In total, 4 to 6 months, provided content (copy, photos, org chart) is prepared during procurement rather than after award.
Mini case study
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Julie, IT director of a provincial economic development agency in Montreal, has a 140,000 CAD envelope. Her tender requires a total 3-year cost, a minimum quality score of 70 and a 65 % quality, 35 % price weighting. She receives 7 bids. The cheapest one (85,000 CAD) scores 58 on quality and is set aside. The winning bid at 124,000 CAD includes 3 years of Canadian hosting and 4 training sessions. Without those items, she would have needed a second contract of 15,000 to 25,000 CAD the following year, plus 3 extra months of procurement.
FAQ
How long from tender notice to launch?
Plan 4 to 6 months in total: about 2 months of procurement and 10 to 14 weeks of delivery. Preparing content during procurement saves 3 to 4 weeks.
Should the tender name a specific CMS?
It is better to state functional requirements (no-code editing, role management, bilingual content) than to name a product. Naming a brand can restrict competition and weaken the process.
How do we make our team autonomous?
Require 2 to 5 training sessions, a user guide and full admin credentials. Reserve 5 to 10 % of the score for editorial autonomy.
Does Law 25 affect hosting choices?
Yes. Communicating personal information outside Quebec requires a privacy impact assessment and adequate protection. Hosting in Canada with 99.9 % availability and 30-day backups simplifies compliance.
Can we ask for a mockup in the bid?
Yes, but unpaid design work discourages the best firms. A stipend of 1,500 to 3,000 CAD per shortlisted bidder is good practice.
Let's scope your project. We support public and para-public institutions from specification writing to launch, with scope, indicative budget and timeline aligned with your procurement process. Detailed quote within 48 h. WhatsApp +221 77 596 93 33.
Mohamed Bah
Fondateur, Kolonell
Passionate about digital and entrepreneurship in Africa, Mohamed has been helping Sénégalese businesses with their digital transformation since 2020. Founder of Kolonell, he believes every SME deserves a professional and accessible online présence.
