SAAQ apologizes, pledges to regain trust after Gallant report

Long lines outside the SAAQ.

The Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) is apologizing “to all Quebecers” for the failures revealed during the Gallant Commission, which looked into the Crown corporation’s chaotic digital shift.

In a press release issued Monday evening, the SAAQ said it acknowledged the Commission’s findings.

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“Senior management, targeted by the report, failed in their duty to adequately inform elected officials and the public about the management of the digital transformation,” the statement reads. “This failure is in addition to the messy launch of SAAQclic and a significant increase in the total cost of the project.”

The corporation admitted that the situation has damaged Quebecers’ “confidence in public institutions.”

The SAAQ added that it is taking the report “very seriously” and plans to “cooperate fully with the government in implementing the report’s recommendations.”

• READ MORE: Guilbault’s office pleads ignorance regarding SAAQ cost increases

“The SAAQ will turn these recommendations into action and will spare no effort to do so,” said Serge Lamontagne, president and CEO of the SAAQ. “We must learn from this. We will soon present the public with a structured plan detailing the actions we will take following our analysis of each of the Commission’s recommendations.”

The SAAQ noted that it has “already implemented specific measures to improve its governance,” including adding new strategic controls, developing a contract management action plan, strengthening the framework for its contract management process and revising competency and experience before appointing senior executives, including members of the board of directors.

SAAQ ‘knowingly lied’

In his voluminous 586-page report, Judge Denis Gallant concluded, among other things, that the SAAQ “knowingly lied” to officials by providing them with “misleading,” “fallacious,” and “hypocritically reassuring” information to “conceal” the increased costs of its digital shift.

The inquiry was launched after a February 2025 Auditor General report that looked into the botched February 2023 rollout of the SAAQclic digital platform.

• READ MORE: Quebec auto insurance board knowingly ‘lied’ to hide cost of SAAQclic project: Gallant

It revealed that the cost of the project had ballooned from $500 million to $1.1 billion by 2027 - a fact Premier François Legault reiterated on Monday that his government was unaware of prior to the AG report.

He wondered aloud if “legal action” was possible “against SAAQ executives who lied” to his government.

“I’m not saying the government was perfect, we could perhaps have been more suspicious, we could have asked more questions,” Legault said. “The truth is important — that management lied to our government for years about the revised cost.”

The Gallant report includes 26 recommendations, including that the government create a centralized entity specializing in IT transformation projects.

• READ MORE: SAAQclic scandal: former Legault aide warned of higher costs in 2024

It said the government’s cybersecurity department, which includes a unit designed to accelerate IT projects, lacks “structural influence on decisions.”

The new entity, said Gallant, should have stable, predictable funding, and public bodies should be required to use it for digital transformation projects.

He also recommended tightening the governance rules for Crown corporations and promoting transparency and access to reliable information.

“Learning from failures can only be based on one categorical imperative: the honesty of all public actors,” Gallant wrote. “Every government official must make a conscious choice to be frank.”

• READ MORE: SAAQclic scandal: Gallant Commission costs $7 million so far

Treasury Board President France-Élaine Duranceau is slated to hold a press briefing on Tuesday morning to respond to the Gallant Commission’s report.

With files from The Canadian Press