Terms of use
Last updated: November 1, 2026.
By using the site you accept these terms. If you do not accept them, do not use the site. Part I applies to everyone, Part II to clients who describe a project, Part III to companies.
Part I — Everyone
1. The service
Portail de soumissions (the “site”, portaildesoumissions.ca) is a free, independent directory of companies that hold a licence from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ), operated by A1 Freight Forwarding Inc. (Expédition de fret A1 Inc.), NEQ 1175598557 (the “operator”). “Portail de soumissions”: other name declared to the Quebec Enterprise Registrar on November 1, 2026 (registration in progress). It shows public information about these licences, lets a client — a person or a business having residential or commercial work done — describe a project for free to licensed companies, which answer the client directly, and summarizes public tenders. The operator does not carry out, or have carried out, any construction work, on its own behalf or for others; it does not organize or coordinate work, does not prepare or submit quotes, does not set prices, receives no payment for work and takes no commission on contracts. It does not act on behalf of the client or of the companies, does not choose a company for the client and does not recommend any company. It is not a party to agreements between a client and a company and does not guarantee the quality, price or timing of the work. The site is not the RBQ and is not affiliated with any public body.
2. What we check, and what we do not
“Active licence” only means that the company appears in the list of active licences published by the RBQ on the date shown on the page. It does not guarantee competence, insurance or the quality of the work. We do not check insurance, competence, solvency, background, complaints, prices or availability. A licence may be suspended, cancelled, restricted or changed after that date. Before signing a contract, check the licence in the official RBQ register and ask for a written quote and a contract that show the licence number.
3. Information provided as is
The information comes from public sources (the RBQ list, the 2021 Census, tender notices) or from the companies themselves and is provided for information only. We correct errors on request. Unless you are a consumer, it is provided as is, without warranty of any kind, express or implied, and we do not guarantee that it is accurate, complete or up to date, or that the site is available at all times and error-free.
4. Liability
4.1 The operator is liable for its own faults as provided by law. It does no work and is not a party to contracts made with companies: it is therefore not liable for the acts, omissions, quotes, work, prices or faults of companies or other third parties.
4.2 Unless you are a consumer, the operator's total liability towards you is limited to the amounts you paid it in the 12 months before the event (zero for a free use of the site), except for intentional or gross fault and except for bodily or moral injury (art. 1474 C.C.Q.).
4.3 If you are a consumer within the meaning of the Consumer Protection Act, nothing in these terms limits the rights that Act and the Civil Code of Québec give you, and the clauses marked “unless you are a consumer” do not apply to you.
5. Links to other sites
The site links to other sites, including the RBQ register, the cities' official pages, SEAO and CanadaBuys. We do not control their content and are not responsible for it.
6. Display order and advertising
Lists show profiles confirmed by the company first (confirmation is free), then the other companies in a random order refreshed every week. No company pays to be listed or for its place in the list. The only paid or promotional placement is “Featured” (section 13): it is always labelled “Ad · Featured” and shown above the list, apart from it. The figures on trade and city pages (counts, years licensed, housing) come from public data and are not a ranking of companies.
Part II — Clients
7. Requests for quotes
7.1 The “Get free quotes” form is free and without obligation, for residential or commercial work. The client describes the project personally (type of work, city, description, timing, budget if desired, whether the work is at home or at business premises) and may add up to 3 photos of the problem. The client warrants that the description and photos are accurate, belong to the client or may be shared, and contain no address, house number, faces, licence plates, building fronts or information about other people. We check every photo before it is shown and may refuse one.
7.2 After the client confirms by email, the request is sent by email, in waves, to up to 15 companies whose active RBQ licence covers that type of work, near the city given: 5 at confirmation, then 5 more after 24 hours and 5 more after 72 hours while the request has fewer than 2 answers. Emails go out Monday to Saturday, 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. (Montréal time), and stop after 3 answers or once the client removes the request. Featured companies that serve that city receive it first; the others are companies whose email address is published on their own website, nearest first. They receive the type of work, the city, the timing and the budget and whether it is at home or at business premises; the description and the photos only under the choices below. They answer the client through the site and prepare their own quotes, under their own responsibility. The client alone decides whether to follow up on an answer, and with which company.
7.3 Three optional and separate choices, unticked at first; none is a condition for sending the request: a) “Send the description”: the description goes to the companies that receive the request or answer it from the site (up to 15); b) “Publish”: the description and the checked photos are also shown on the site, without name or contact details (city only); c) “Pass my contact details”: the client's name, email and phone are given to the companies that answer the request (up to 15), only so they can answer. Without that choice, companies answer through the site without seeing the client's contact details.
7.4 Every confirmed request is shown on the requests page and may appear under “Recent requests” on trade and city pages, without any personal information: type of work, city, timing and budget. Other licensed companies may answer it from their company account.
7.5 The client follows the request and reads the answers on a private page, through a personal link sent by email, and can remove the request at any time; it is removed automatically 60 days after it was sent, and an unconfirmed request after 7 days.
7.6 We do not guarantee the number or timing of answers, that any company will answer, or the content or price of a quote. We may refuse or remove a request that is false, illegal, offensive, promotional or about prohibited work; at most three requests per email address per day.
8. Consumers and business clients
8.1 If you have work done for your personal, family or household needs (your home, your cottage, your rental unit as an occupant), you are generally a consumer: the Consumer Protection Act protects you, including in the contract you sign with a company, and section 4.3 applies. If you have work done for your business (shop, office, building you operate), the clauses marked “unless you are a consumer” apply to you, and your contract with the company is governed by the Civil Code of Québec.
8.2 Whatever your situation: insist on a written contract that shows the company's RBQ licence number, the description of the work, the price and the payment schedule, and check the licence in the RBQ register (see our “Before you sign” checklist). Municipal permits are the responsibility of the owner and the company: agree in writing on who applies for and pays for them.
Part III — Companies
9. Companies that answer requests
9.1 Only a company whose active RBQ licence covers the requested work may answer a request. By answering, it confirms this and is responsible for the accuracy of its answer, its quote and its work.
9.2 A client's contact details are used only to answer that client's request. It is forbidden to transfer them, add them to a mailing list or send the client other commercial messages without consent (Canada's Anti-Spam Legislation, Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector).
9.3 We limit the number of requests sent to each company. In case of abuse (a licence that does not cover the work, harassment, false information, repeated complaints), we may remove answers, stop sending requests or a placement, or close the company account. A company may ask at any time to stop receiving our emails, through the link in each email.
10. Profiles
10.1 A company may at any time, free of charge, ask for its profile to be corrected or removed (“Correct or remove a profile”). We first check that the request comes from the company, then correct or remove the profile within 2 business days. We never ask for payment to correct or remove a profile.
10.2 A company may manage its profile for free in the company account, signing in with a link sent to the email address on file for its licence in the RBQ register (or to another address at the same domain name). Content it adds (description, website, email for clients, service areas, logo) is published under its responsibility, marked as provided by it, in both languages, for as long as the profile exists; it must be accurate, belong to it and comply with the law, with no links, emails or phone numbers in the description. We may remove content that is misleading, offensive or unrelated to the company. The RBQ data (name, licence, subcategories, phone, city) cannot be changed by the company. What a company accepts in its account (these terms, Featured placement, reminders) is recorded with its date and wording.
11. Provisions for companies
This section applies to companies that use the site for their business (company account, answers, Featured placement). 11.1 The company is responsible for its content and its answers; it indemnifies the operator against third-party claims caused by that content, its answers or its work, unless they result from a fault of the operator. 11.2 Towards a company, the operator's total liability is limited to the amounts the company paid it in the 12 months before the event, except for intentional or gross fault, and except for bodily or moral injury (art. 1474 C.C.Q.). 11.3 Nothing in this section limits the rights that a law of public order gives a person.
12. Public tenders
The public tenders come from SEAO (Secrétariat du Conseil du trésor, Données Québec, CC BY 4.0) and CanadaBuys (Government of Canada, Open Government Licence – Canada). They are summarized for information and may have changed: only the official notice counts. We do not organize these tenders, represent no contracting authority and submit no bids.
13. Featured placement
13.1 Featured placement is advertising. A company that has confirmed its profile, and whose RBQ licence covers the trade, may turn it on in its company account. Its card then appears in a block labelled “Ad · Featured” above the list of its trade, in its own city and in the cities it serves. At most 3 companies per trade × city list; the spots go to the companies that asked first, and the order inside the block changes on every visit. The placement does not change the order of the list itself (section 6), is not a recommendation or a rating of the quality of the work, and has no effect on licence status.
13.2 Featured companies whose licence covers the work also receive, first, the requests for quotes of the cities of their block (section 7.2); clients are told so on the form.
13.3 Launch offer. The first 20 companies that turn the placement on get it free for 3 months from the day they turn it on, without a credit card, in exchange for showing the “Licence RBQ vérifiée” badge on their own website (see the licence badge page). Companies that turned it on before November 1, 2026 keep the 12 months they were promised. At the end of the free period the placement simply stops: nothing is charged and nothing renews by itself. If paid placement is offered later, it will have its own terms, accepted separately, before any payment.
13.4 Cancellation. The company can turn the placement off at any time in its company account; it stops at once. We may end the launch offer, or remove a placement that breaks these terms (section 9.3), after telling the company by email.
13.5 No placement guarantees a number of views, requests, calls, accepted quotes or contracts.
Part IV — General
14. Permitted use
Clients may use the site for their projects, and companies for their business. Automated extraction of the content, copying its texts and design for commercial purposes, using contact details received for any purpose other than answering the request, and sending unsolicited commercial messages are not allowed. This does not cover the RBQ's open data itself, which anyone may reuse under the CC BY 4.0 licence.
15. Intellectual property and data sources
The site's design, texts, grouping by trade and place, and code belong to the operator; company names and marks belong to their owners. Contains data from the RBQ (list of active licences, Données Québec, CC BY 4.0), Statistics Canada (2021 Census, Statistics Canada Open Licence), SEAO (CC BY 4.0) and CanadaBuys (Open Government Licence – Canada), reorganized by company, trade and place. These bodies have neither approved nor checked the site.
16. Changes
We may publish a new version of these terms; its date is shown at the top. It applies to use of the site after it is published. The site is free for clients; paid services for companies, if offered, have separate terms, accepted separately.
17. Languages, governing law and courts
These terms are available in French and in English. They are governed by the laws of Quebec and the federal laws of Canada that apply there. Unless you are a consumer, any dispute goes to the courts of the judicial district of Montréal. A consumer may always bring a claim before the court of the place of his or her domicile. If a clause is found invalid, the others remain in force.
18. Contact
A1 Freight Forwarding Inc. (Expédition de fret A1 Inc.), NEQ 1175598557, 1520, 55e Avenue, Montréal (Québec) H8T 3J5. Email: info@portaildesoumissions.ca.