Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together – 3rd edition

• In 2019, Montréal adopted the Agenda 2030 for Quality and Exemplarity in Design and Architecture.
• In 2021, the Bureau du design issued the call for proposals Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together (1st ed.), which led to the creation of the Design Montréal Quality Toolkit. 
• In 2023, the Bureau du design issued the call for proposals Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together (2nd ed.), which was used to enrich the content of the Design Montréal Quality Toolkit.
• In 2025, the Bureau du design is issuing the call for proposals Developing a Stronger Design Culture, Together (3rd ed.), to foster appropriation of the tools contained in the Design Montréal Quality Toolkit.

As such, in 2025, we are aiming to move beyond development of digital resources, to a more participatory approach to raising awareness among target audiences.

The Bureau du design seeks proposals for development and facilitation of awareness activities to be included in an annual program extending from fall 2025 to fall 2026.

• Examples of targeted activities include participatory workshops, tours and field visits, charrettes, panels, exhibitions, unusual encounters, and themed discussion tables, among others.
• Where possible, activities must be implemented on the City of Montréal’s priority intervention territories or used as case studies, e.g.:
  • Inclusive and Resilient Neighbourhoods (Quartiers inclusifs et résilients, QIR):
    • Quartier Sainte-Marie (borough of Ville-Marie);
    • Quartier Saint-Pierre (borough of Lachine);
    • Quartier Nord-Est (borough of Montréal-Nord).
  • The Metropolitan Innovation Zones (Zones d’innovation métropolitaine, ZIM) (Draft Land Use and Urban Mobility Plan, ch. 2, p. 83 - in French):
    • Pointe-de-l’Île Industrial Sector (SIPI);
    • Canal de Lachine 4.0;
    • Hodge-Lebeau/District Central;
    • Technoparc Montréal;
  • Downtown (in line with the priorities of the Downtown Strategy, 2024 - in French).
• While the primary goal is to produce awareness activities, these must enable production of a deliverable to be integrated into the Quality Toolkit to help enrich it (e.g., video capture, mapped tours, sketches).
• Activities must, as much as possible, comply with:
  • Montréal's GBA+ Framework - in French;
  • The Municipal Universal Accessibility Plan 2024–2030 - in French;
  • The Montréal Responsible Procurement Plan 2030 - in French;
  • o Montréal’s zero-waste events objective.

Proposed activities must be aimed at one or all of the Quality Toolkit target audiences. These include but are not limited to project managers, developers and professionals in the design and architecture milieu, as well as citizens involved in decision-making processes affecting the quality of Montréal living environments (e.g., people taking part in participatory budgeting and other forms of public consultations, members of planning advisory committees [comités consultatifs d’urbanisme, or CCUs], Montréal elected officials).

• The total budget for the 3rd edition of the call for proposals is $150,000, taxes included.
• The budget will be allocated to more than one supplier. We plan on selecting between two and four proposals.
• The procurement method is a private contract for services.
• A proposal may be submitted by a multidisciplinary team, the main representative of which will sign the contract with the City of Montréal.
• Proposals may involve one or more awareness-raising activities.
• Proposals cannot include promotional or retail-sales activities (e.g., trade shows or exhibitions), nor awards or grant programs.

Organizations and businesses that meet all of the following conditions are eligible:

• Are located in the Agglomeration of Montréal;
• Do not appear on the register of enterprises ineligible for public contracts (Registre des entreprises non admissibles aux contrats publics—RENA);
• Do not appear on Montréal’s list of companies with unsatisfactory performance (Liste des firmes à rendement insatisfaisant);
• Do not have, at the time the contract is awarded, another ongoing service contract with the Service du développement économique worth more than $25,000, the purchase order for which was issued less than 90 days prior  (rotation rule, applicable to businesses only, not to organizations);
• Have fulfilled the commitments of previous service contracts with other Montréal municipal departments or boroughs.

Proposals must be submitted using the standardized application form for this purpose. The form has four sections:

• Information about the organization’s or business’s representative;
• Information about the organization or business;
• Upload of the proposal presentation documents (as described below);
• Upload of the following mandatory documents:
  • Up-to-date copy of the business’s entry on the Registre des entreprises du Québec;
  • Declaration form regarding the French language, completed and signed. 

Submit your proposal (form in French only)

The proposal presentation documents must be structured in four parts as described below. The first three parts must be submitted as a single PDF document, without the financial structure. Part 4, the financial structure, must be submitted using the standardized Excel template provided.

Part 1 (max. 4 pages) 
Description of the proposal

The organization or business must demonstrate its understanding of the objectives of the 3rd edition of the call for proposals and explain how and to what extent its proposal responds to them.

Assessment criteria:

Does the proposal:

• Address one of the 12 notions outlined in the Quality Toolkit?
  • 6 notions of the Quality Vision section
  • 6 notions of the Quality Operation section
• Meet the objectives of the call for proposals?
• Include an effective communications strategy to reach the target audiences?
• Include a deliverable that could be incorporated into the Quality Toolkit and would help enrich it (e.g., video capture, mapped tours, sketches)?

Part 2 (max. 6 pages) 
Description of the organization or business and its team members

The organization or business must demonstrate its ability to implement its proposed project by providing:

• Its mission, values and areas of activity;
• Examples of similar previous achievements;
• An organizational strategy suitable for the project, including:
  • An organizational chart showing the roles of key resources (internal and external resources, as applicable);
  • Bibliographies for each key resources, including the project manager (stating training received, years of experience in their current role and similar accomplishments in that role).

Assessment criteria:

• Does the organization or business have the expertise needed to complete its proposed project?
• Is the team assigned to the project appropriate for the methodology and timetable proposed for the project (ref. Part 3)?

Part 3 (max. 4 pages) 
Description of the timetable and methodology

The organization or business must submit a timetable and an effective methodology for implementing the project, including:

• Methods for development, implementation, and facilitation, as well as for summarizing the outcome of the activity or activities;
• A detailed timetable for the activity or activities;
• Performance targets for the activity or activities (e.g., location, number of participants, percentage of participants who liked the activity or activities).

Assessment criteria:

• Does the methodology appear to be optimal for implementing the proposed project?
• Does the timetable seem realistic?
• Are the targets relevant and ambitious?

Part 4
Description of the financial structure (separate document)

The organization or business must submit a detailed financial structure, including the contributions of other partners and collaborators, as applicable. The structure must include a breakdown by stage and by expenditure item—use the standardized budget template provided (in French only).

Assessment criteria:

• Does the financial structure appear to meet the needs of the proposed project, given the proposed methodology and resources?
• Does the financial breakdown by stages / expenditure items seem consistent with the effort described in the methodology and timetable?

Budget allocation

• The allocation process will seek to achieve diversity of initiatives for the target audiences.
• If there are too few eligible proposals or if they do not meet the specified criteria, the city may forgo awarding the entire $150,000 allocated for this call for proposals. After the interview stage with selected applicants, the parties may also agree on budget variations.

Selection committee

• The selection committee will be made up of commissioners from the City of Montréal’s Bureau du design plus a representative of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications.

Steps of the selection process:

• Eligibility: The Service du développement économique will verify the eligibility of the applicant organizations and businesses.
• Analysis: The committee will examine the proposals deemed eligible using the assessment criteria matrix above, and establish the list of proposals chosen for the next step—the interview.
• Interview: The selected organizations and/or businesses will be invited to a 30-minute online interview. They will have the opportunity to present their proposals orally and interact with the committee members, answering more detailed questions or reframing certain aspects of their proposals so that they tie in better with the project goals, the stated criteria and the available funding amounts.
• Final selection: After the interviews, the committee will make its final selection and issue recommendations for funding allocation. The organizations and businesses will be informed of these recommendations, after which they may decide to move on to the next step.
• Contractual agreements: For each selected proposal, a standard City of Montréal contract for services must be signed by the parties. The contracts will be submitted for approval by the relevant decision-making bodies, after which the work may begin.

• Launch of call for proposals: May 12, 2025
• Submission deadline: July 4, 2025, 11:59 p.m.
• Proposal analysis: week of July 7, 2025
• Interviews: July-August 2025 (depending on availabilities and vacations)
• Final selection: mid-August 2025 (depending on availabilities and vacations)
• Preparation and signature of agreements: before the end of August 2025
• Follow-up of activities: continuous, from fall 2025 to fall 2026
• Summary of activities: fall 2026

An online information session was held on May 30, at noon. The recording of the session is now available on our YouTube channel (in French only).

You may also write to us at @email or refer to the FAQ file below.

Q1: Can a proposal include self-promotional activities (e.g., architectural tour showcasing an architectural firm's projects)?
A1 : No, the City of Montréal cannot use public funds to support self-promotional activities that have a direct benefit for a business.

Q2: Can we attach the CVs of key resources as an appendix to the proposal?
A2: No, part 2 should be limited to 6 pages. Full CVs are not required. We ask for short bibliographies for each key resources, including the project manager.

Q3. Can we submit a project that may also be eligible for other funding?
A3. No. Projects submitted must involve clearly defined deliverables and be directly related to the mandate awarded pursuant to this call for proposals. If you are organizing a broader initiative that is receiving funding from multiple sources, we recommend that you split it into distinct activities.

Q4. To clarify the earlier answer about self-promotion: in a tour with several stops, do we have to completely exclude design, planning or architecture projects that we have contributed to? Would we be allowed to include projects in which we played an indirect role, for example consulting on a permit application or facilitating a public consultation?
A4. Yes, presenting projects completed by a mandatary is allowed, as long as self-promotion is not the objective of the proposal and does not make up the majority of the activity.

Q5. What are the exact dates of the programming to be planned? Could we submit a proposal for activities in the spring, fall or winter as well?
A5. The activities will be spread out over a year, from fall 2025 to fall 2026.

Q6. Does the proponent (the company that will be awarded the contract) have to be part of the design and architecture community?
A6. No, but it must demonstrate that its team includes the expertise required to implement its proposed project.

Q7. Will all proponents be called in for an interview? 
A7. No, only those achieving the highest proposal analysis scores will be called.

Q8. Is there any benefit to covering more than one dimension or strategy of the Toolkit?
A8. No.

Q9. If we have received funding from one of the earlier calls for proposals, are we still eligible?
A9. Yes, organizations or firms that have already been awarded mandates in previous iterations of this call for proposals remain eligible.

Q10. Do we have to present content from the Toolkit itself, or base our project on it and present related content?
A10. The objective is to raise awareness among the target audiences of the 12 notions of the Quality Toolkit.

Q11. Can we submit multiple proposals? If yes, must we be the project manager for all of them, or can we collaborate on some of them?
A11. Yes, submitting more than one proposal is allowed. That said, the selection committee will aim to choose proposals from a variety of companies and organizations.

Q12. What is the expected balance between activities that aim to promote the Toolkit to a wider audiences and those specifically designed to equip professionals to make concrete use of it in their projects?
A12. Our aim is to create a program that will deliver a variety of activities to different audiences. There is no set breakdown. To that end, the selection committee will be tasked with choosing complementary proposals.

Q13. Can you confirm that “citizens” are part of the target audiences? For example, our project idea involves engaging and raising awareness of young people.
A13. Yes, the emerging generation is included in the target audience.