SAAQ orders independent audit into computer outage that shut down service centres

A screenshot of the SAAQclic website on Tuesday, May 6, 2025. (Joe Lofaro/CTV News)

Quebec’s automobile insurance board has hired a firm to conduct an independent audit into the cause of the computer outage that shut down all of its service centres this week.

In a statement, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) said it did not want to jump to conclusions and that it had been focusing on finding a solution and getting its systems back up and running.

“Once we have clear answers on what exactly caused the outage and what steps have been taken to make sure it doesn’t happen again, we’ll be able to share more details, without putting our IT security at risk,” SAAQ spokesperson Simon-Pierre Poulin said.

The computer outage began Tuesday afternoon, and the board said that it was linked to a server farm which affected many of its services, including aappointments for driver’s licences, registration verifications and its online platform SAAQclic.

SAAQclic in currently the subject of a public inquiry following its disastrous rollout and a $500 million overrun.

The board had initially blamed Microsoft for the breakdown, with Cybersecurity and the Digital Economy Minister Gilles Bélanger saying at a news scrum Wednesday that the outage was not SAAQclic’s fault.

The SAAQ noted that customers’ data was not affected by the computer system failure.

The commission’s mandate is to investigate “the causes and circumstances of the problems encountered in managing and implementing the program,” which includes the introduction of the SAAQclic platform.

The commission is expected to submit the findings of its investigation by Sept. 30.

With files by The Canadian Press.