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About MontréalScore

MontréalScore is a free, open-source accountability tool that tracks the performance of Montreal's municipal government using the City's own open data and public reporting.

We track construction permit processing times, municipal contract spending, and 311 service request volumes — giving Montrealers a clear, fact-based picture of how their city is being run.

What you'll find

  • Construction Permits — Borough-by-borough analysis of permit processing times against the City's 90-day target — with median wait times and year-over-year trends.
  • Municipal Contracts — Every city contract over $2,000 — who gets them, how much they're worth, and whether spending patterns raise questions. Includes procurement threshold analysis and supplier concentration data.
  • 311 Service Requests — Volume, resolution rates, and average response times for citizen requests across all boroughs. Over 350,000 requests per year — from potholes to property taxes.

Why this exists

Open data exists, but no one was putting it in context. The median permit processing time exceeds 200 days in some boroughs despite a 90-day target. Contract data is published but rarely analyzed against procurement thresholds, supplier concentration, or spending growth.

MontréalScore connects the dots. No opinions. No party affiliation. Just the data, the sources, and the results.

Data sources

All quantitative data comes from Montreal's open data portal. Datasets include:

  • Construction permits — updated weekly, data since 1990
  • Municipal contracts — all contracts over $2,000, updated regularly
  • 311 service requests — aggregate volumes and resolution data from the city's 311 request system, updated daily

Methodology

All analyses are built from publicly available data with no editorializing. Key approaches:

  • Permits: We calculate median processing times and on-time rates per borough, compared against the city's stated 90-day target.
  • Contracts: We aggregate spending across all four approval bodies, normalize supplier names, filter intergovernmental transfers, and flag patterns like sole-sourcing, threshold clustering, and spending concentration.
  • 311: We query aggregate volumes, resolution rates, and response times from the city's CKAN API — no individual request data is downloaded.

Help us keep score

MontréalScore is only as good as its sources. If you have information about municipal data, a news article we missed, or a correction — we want to hear from you.

  • Spotted permit, contract, or 311 patterns we haven't covered?
  • Have a news article, council meeting clip, or budget document to share?
  • Found an error in our data or analysis?

Send tips and corrections to [email protected]. All submissions are verified before publication.

Contact

MontréalScore is built by Ashwater, an independent Montreal-based studio. For inquiries, tips, or media requests: [email protected].