Quebec’s auto insurance board is once again getting a new CEO. The Quebec government’s cabinet announced Wednesday that Serge Lamontagne was nominated as the head of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ). He will take over on Jan. 19. The nomination means the SAAQ has had three different CEOs in the past three years. Lamontagne will replace the current and interim CEO, Annie Lafond, who was appointed last July. Lafond took over after the dismissal of CEO Éric Ducharme, was fired amid the 2025 public inquiry into the SAAQclic scandal. The SAAQclic online platform is expected to cost Quebec taxpayers about $1.1 billion, which is $500,000 more than anticipated, according to the province’s auditor general. Ducharme himself took the helm of the Crown corporation following a scandal. He was appointed in April 2023 to replace Denis Marsolais following the botched rollout of the SAAQ’s new online portal, which led to several services shutting down for weeks prior to the release of the new portal, which launched with hiccups and caused a backlog of 400,000 transactions. The troubled rollout led to long lineups outside SAAQ service centres for weeks in Montreal and elsewhere. The nomination of Lamontagne on Wednesday also comes one day after the SAAQ was dealt another blow. On Tuesday, the Autorité des marchés publics (AMP) criticized the insurance board for several alleged breaches in relation to its management of the SAAQclic project, which “contravene the responsible management of public funds and undermine the principles of integrity, transparency and fair competition.” Lamontagne served as director general of the City of Montreal between 2018 and 2024 and fulfilled the same role at the City of Laval from 2014 to 2018. He holds a master’s degree in business administration and has more than 35 years of experience in strategic roles in the public service. His experience makes him the ideal candidate to take on the new role and “restore public confidence” at the SAAQ, said Quebec Minister of Transport Jonatan Julien in a press release. “Serving citizens remains at the heart of his priorities. Mr. Lamontagne has my full confidence and support in carrying out this mandate,” Julien added.
