Quebec RBQ licence: the number belongs on every invoice

Quebec is not a province with different numbers. It is a different system, and there are four of them stacked on top of each other. A different licensing regime, a different sales tax, a different legal instrument for securing your claim, and a language charter. A contractor who crosses into Quebec carrying an Ontario playbook will be wrong on all four.

This article covers the one that reaches your paperwork first: the Régie du bâtiment du Québec licence, and the fact that its number has to appear on your invoice.

Who needs the licence

The RBQ names three groups that require a licence:

1. building contractors performing work for third parties or soliciting clients;
2. promoters entering into contracts to sell buildings or roads they constructed;
3. owner-builders performing construction work on their own property.

The definition of contractor comes from the Building Act, article 7, and the RBQ quotes it:

"a person who, for another person, carries out or has carried out construction work for profit is considered to be a contractor."

And it reads "for profit" more widely than an accountant would. The RBQ states that the phrase extends beyond the strict accounting meaning to include any arrangement where the person "benefits from this arrangement" through direct or indirect gain.

Note the third group. Owner-builders need a licence too — Quebec licenses people building on their own property, which has no counterpart in most common-law provinces.

Four classes, and the subclass matters as much as the class

The RBQ issues four licence classes:

• general contractor
• specialized contractor
• general owner-builder
• specialized owner-builder

Each is divided into subclasses, and this is the part that catches contractors who assume a licence is a licence. The RBQ is direct about the consequence of holding the wrong one:

"Failing to comply with these rules entails severe fines, as it is equivalent to working without a licence."

The authority cited is sections 46 and 196–199 of the Building Act.

So the compliance question in Quebec is not "do we have an RBQ number". It is "does our subclass cover the work in this contract".

The requirement that changes your document template

Most licensing regimes stop at requiring the licence. Quebec goes further and tells you where the number has to appear. From the RBQ:

"You must indicate your RBQ licence number on your estimates, bids, contracts, account statements and invoices."

And beyond the documents:

• Advertising: "You must indicate your licence number on any type of advertising, including your business cards."
• Vehicles: "Vehicles that display the company's business name, that travel on public streets or on construction sites must display the RBQ licence number."
• Site signage: required where the company name appears.
• Websites and professional social media: required where services are advertised.

The format is prescribed: RBQ licence: XXXX-XXXX-XX — ten digits.

And one prohibition worth knowing before a designer talks you into it: using the RBQ logo or the Quebec government flag is strictly prohibited.

Read that first requirement as what it is. Your quote template and your invoice template each need a field, filled in on every document. Not a note in a folder. Not something you add when a customer asks. On the estimate, on the bid, on the contract, on the account statement, on the invoice — the same discipline the rest of a Canadian construction invoice needs: invoicing for contractors: the $500 tier and holdback.

Hiring subcontractors in Quebec

The RBQ states that contractors who employ unlicensed subcontractors face "immediate prosecution", and that both the contractor and the subcontractor can be held liable.

The verification tool is the licence holders' repertory, published by the RBQ, where a licence number can be checked. The homeowner-facing version of the same page is called "Check a contractor's licence" — which tells you something about how visible this is on the customer side.

Practical rule, identical to the clearance-certificate rule in Ontario: verify before mobilization, keep the result with the subcontract, and re-check on long jobs.

One more thing worth planning for. The RBQ publishes its current processing times on its own licence page, and they move. At the end of August 2026 the page reported that priority applications received in early August and regular applications received in mid-July were being processed. A licence application is not a same-week item; if Quebec is in your plan for next spring, it is a decision for this autumn.

The three other systems, in one paragraph each

Sales tax. Quebec is not a participating province under the Excise Tax Act. It does not appear in Schedule VIII, and it has no prescribed rate in the harmonization regulations. The federal 5 percent GST applies under subsection 165(1), with no provincial component added by subsection 165(2); Quebec levies its own sales tax under its own provincial legislation, administered separately. That means a second registration, a second return, and an invoice that shows two taxes with two registration numbers. It is not a rate change — it is a second tax regime. Get the rates and rules from Revenu Québec, which administers them. How the GST holdback timing rule (section 168(7)) works for a job outside Quebec is covered separately: GST/HST on holdback: no tax before the holdback is payable.

Security for your claim. Quebec has no construction lien. It is a civil law jurisdiction, and construction claims are secured by a legal hypothec under the Civil Code of Québec — a different instrument, in a different register, with its own conditions and its own deadlines. Do not carry an Ontario 60-day or a British Columbia 45-day calendar across the border — see how those two provinces actually count in construction lien deadlines: Ontario and Alberta 60 days, BC 45. Get the deadlines from the Civil Code and a Quebec construction lawyer.

Language. Quebec has a Charter of the French language. The RBQ notes on its own English-language pages that "[t]his content in English is intended for individuals covered by the exceptions to the Charter of the French language and its regulations." For a contractor that is a signal about the default, not a curiosity: plan for French contracts, French quotes, French invoices and French communication with customers, and take advice on what the Charter requires of a business of your size and structure.

The checklist for entering Quebec

1. Determine the class and subclass your work falls into — before you apply, not after the first contract.
2. Apply early. The RBQ publishes its processing backlog; treat it as a lead time.
3. Put RBQ licence: XXXX-XXXX-XX on the estimate, the bid, the contract, the account statement and the invoice, as a permanent field of the template.
4. Add it to vehicles, site signage, business cards and the website where the business name appears.
5. Verify every subcontractor in the licence holders' repertory before they begin, and file the result.
6. Register separately for Quebec sales tax and build an invoice that shows both taxes with both registration numbers.
7. Do not reuse a common-law lien calendar. Quebec's security instrument is different in kind.
8. Plan for French as the working language of your documents.

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Current as of August 29, 2026. This article summarizes information published by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec and is not legal advice. It does not state Quebec sales tax rates or registration rules, the deadlines applying to a legal hypothec under the Civil Code of Québec, the specific fine amounts under sections 196 to 199 of the Building Act, licence security and guarantee plan requirements, examinations and qualification, or the obligations imposed by the Charter of the French language — all of which must be confirmed with the responsible authority or a Quebec adviser before you rely on them. Processing times quoted are those published by the RBQ on the date shown and change continuously.

What Zirko does: the company data recorded for a business is printed on its documents, so a licence number is a field of the template rather than something typed in each time, and quotes, invoices and account statements share it. Zirko does not apply for licences, does not verify a licence in the RBQ repertory, does not maintain a Quebec sales tax table and gives no legal advice. Issued documents are immutable; a correction is a separate document.