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Our method

Allô Pros answers one question: who is worth a phone call? Here is exactly what we show, where it comes from, and what we don’t know yet.

Where the data comes from

The foundation is the “List of active licences” published daily by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec on Données Québec, under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Every licensed company in the region is in it, whether it wants to be or not, whether it pays or not. Current data: registry of September 18, 2026.

To place companies on the map: the Quebec municipal directory and GeoNames postal-code coordinates (CC BY 4.0).

How we list companies

In a “trade in a city” list, companies registered in the city come first, by distance from the centre; then the nearest ones on the same shore; finally those across the water, separately. Rivers divide Greater Montreal: a plumber 8 km away but across the bridge isn’t “next door”.

Nobody buys their place in these lists. When we sell visibility, it will sit in a box marked “Ad”, separate from the list, and it will not change any fact on any listing.

The 7 points we check

On every listing, the same count for every company. It’s what we could check ourselves, not a trust score: an “unverified” point only means we don’t have the information.

  1. The RBQ licence is active (RBQ registry).
  2. No restriction is on file (registry). If there is one, it’s a “point to note”: according to the RBQ, a restriction bars the company from bidding on or entering into a public contract.
  3. A bond is on file in the registry.
  4. The company has a website that responds and belongs to it: its name appears on it (our check).
  5. Its website shows the same licence number as the registry.
  6. Its website shows the same phone number as the registry.
  7. It answers our emails — test in preparation; we will publish the measured delay with the date.

How we know the trade

For plumbing, electrical, heating and general contractors, the licence says so: the subclass that allows this work. For roofing, painting, paving and others, the licence doesn’t tell them apart: that work is part of a bundle found on almost every licence. We then rely on the company name, and we say so on the listing (“based on the company name”).

What we don’t know yet

Independence

Allô Pros is not affiliated with the RBQ, the CMEQ, the CMMTQ or the Government of Quebec. Found an error? Tell us.

Credits