Quebec City — The Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) presented an incomplete 2023 annual report on Thursday, nine months late, which shows a heavy deficit of $122 million. In 2023, the SAAQ embarked on a chaotic digital shift. Nearly 15,000 complaints were lodged during the disastrous implementation of SAAQclic, three times as many as usual. At a press conference at the SAAQ’s head office in Quebec City, President and CEO Éric Ducharme made a point of offering his sincerest apologies to the people of Quebec, as well as to Minister Geneviève Guilbault. Last month, the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, ruled that the Transport Minister had committed a contempt of Parliament by failing to submit the SAAQ report on time. “We are sincerely sorry,” said CEO Ducharme at the outset. “We encountered a number of difficulties following the roll-out [of SAAQclic] … The company’s performance has been greatly affected.” Since then, the SAAQ has been working to “reduce delays” and “correct technological anomalies,” according to him. “I would like to apologize on my own behalf, and on behalf of the company, to all customers who have experienced inconvenience,” he said. Meanwhile, the SAAQ’s deficit has increased from $35.6 million in 2022 to $122 million in 2023. It will be a little more in 2024, according to Ducharme. “These are significant figures,” he acknowledged. Unusually, the independent auditors were unable to confirm the validity of the information in the financial statements. “We express no opinion on the attached financial statements of the entity,” wrote Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, and the firm BDO Canada. “In a highly computerized environment, we were unable to obtain sufficient and appropriate evidence to satisfy ourselves as to the completeness, reality, existence and accuracy of a significant number of positions.” Ducharme, a former secretary of the Treasury Board, told a press conference that he found this situation “difficult to accept.” This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 30, 2025.
