{"id":556753,"date":"2026-03-24T04:45:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556753\/"},"modified":"2026-03-24T04:45:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-24T04:45:19","slug":"montreal-inspector-general-surveying-city-pothole-contracts-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/556753\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal inspector general surveying city pothole contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the city grapples with how to address its worsening roads, Montreal\u2019s inspector general says it\u2019s keeping a close eye on how the city awards contracts for pothole repairs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s one of the findings to come from the inspector general\u2019s annual report, released on Monday, which warns Montreal has been \u201crestricting competition\u201d in awarding the contracts.<\/p>\n

As a result, the inspector\u2019s office \u2014 best known by its French acronym BIG (Bureau de l\u2019inspecteur g\u00e9n\u00e9ral) \u2014 says it will be surveying how the city awards pothole contracts moving forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe BIG will monitor future calls for tenders in 2026 and produce a status report on this issue,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

The report comes as the city has been dealing with a record number of potholes this winter<\/a> and has warned the spring thaw will only make the situation worse.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year, the city found itself operating without its usual contract for mechanical pothole repairs after it expired in December without being renewed.<\/p>\n

The city has said it twice issued a call for tenders for that contract, but wasn\u2019t able to find bidders that complied with the criteria.<\/p>\n

The city later awarded 10 privately negotiated contracts<\/a> for companies to repair potholes by hand as it became clear the state of certain streets in the city badly deteriorated over the winter.<\/p>\n

Those contracts allowed the city to patch 15,000 potholes, it says.<\/p>\n

In its report on Monday, the BIG speaks of the failed call for tenders and notes the city has \u201crestricted competition\u201d by requesting a particular technology be used for the work since 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a result, only one company had the necessary machinery to perform the work as required and was able to submit a compliant bid,\u201d the report states.<\/p>\n

The city currently has four automated pothole-repair machines, but announced last week it is purchasing two more that should be in service by 2027.<\/p>\n

The city also announced it is creating two new teams of blue-collar workers that will be dedicated to road maintenance on the city\u2019s main streets.<\/a><\/p>\n

Executive committee chair Claude Pinard said the teams will help the city better understand the pothole issue, predict costs and avoid unsuccessful calls for tenders.<\/p>\n

Asked about the inspector general\u2019s report on Monday, Mayor Soraya Martinez Ferrada said the city is working on ensuring more companies can bid on city contracts.<\/p>\n

The mayor pointed to the city awarding the 10 smaller pothole contracts as a recent success.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is real work to be done,\u201d Martinez Ferrada said. \u201c(But) one thing is certain: we want to ensure that more people bid on contracts, which leads to greater competition and, as a result, lower prices.\u201d<\/p>\n

Concerns over \u201cextreme concentration\u201d of resurfacing sector<\/p>\n

The report also raises concerns about the local asphalt resurfacing market suffering from \u201cextreme concentration\u201d in recent years.<\/p>\n

The report speaks of a \u201cgradual erosion of company diversity\u201d and a shrinking market dominated by a handful of companies.<\/p>\n

It notes that while the five most influential companies in the sector captured 71 per cent of the city\u2019s contracts in 2017, they accounted for 100 per of them last year.<\/p>\n

The report warns the concentration risks weakening competition, driving up costs, and making it harder for new companies to successfully bid.<\/p>\n

The Inspector General\u2019s Office was created in 2014 to catch wrongdoing and ensure the integrity of Montreal\u2019s contract-awarding process.<\/p>\n

jfeith@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Related<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the city grapples with how to address its worsening roads, Montreal\u2019s inspector general says it\u2019s keeping a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":556754,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,215699,2338,207249],"class_list":["post-556753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-city-contracts","tag-montreal","tag-the-city"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=556753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/556753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=556753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=556753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=556753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}