SAAQclic fiasco: CAQ refuses to allow Committee on the National Assembly to investigate

The legislature building, known as the National Assembly, is seen in Quebec City, Wednesday, June 5, 2024. (Jacques Boissinot / The Canadian Press)

After declaring that it wanted to get to the bottom of the SAAQclic affair, the Coalition avenir Québec (CAQ) government on Tuesday prevented the Committee on the National Assembly (CAN) from looking into the matter.

All CAQ MNAs voted against a Liberal motion proposing to give the CAN a mandate to investigate the SAAQ by summoning several of its executives and former executives.

The failed rollout of SAAQclic in 2023 led to long queues in front of branches and cost $500 million more than expected, for a total that will exceed $1.1 billion in 2025, according to the Auditor General.

In her report in February, the Auditor General concluded that the SAAQ had provided erroneous information to the elected members of the Commission de l’administration publique regarding the progress of the SAAQclic project.

Last week, the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, declared that this was, at face value, contempt of parliament. She asked parliamentarians to agree on what action to take.

However, on Tuesday, the CAQ government refused to allow the CAN to become involved. The CAN is the only body that could have decided whether the SAAQ had truly committed a contempt of parliament.

“Today, the Caquistes are complicit in the deception. The Caquistes don’t want to get to the bottom of the SAAQclic fiasco. They are protecting people who have deceived us,” reacted Liberal Party House Leader Monsef Derraji.

“What is the CAQ afraid of? Why don’t the Caquists want this commission of enquiry in Parliament so that we, as parliamentarians, can question these people who have deceived us?”

In her decision, Roy stated that it was entirely possible to conduct an investigation at the CAN in parallel with the public enquiry to be headed by Denis Gallant, Derraji said at a news briefing.

“Judge Gallant is not going to investigate the deceptions that took place inside the National Assembly. (...) The CAQ is complicit in the deception and they are afraid that the truth will be revealed by parliamentarians,” he insisted.

“It’s important to let the commission of enquiry do its work. It would not be appropriate to interfere (...) with an additional investigation by the CAN,” defended CAQ MNA Mathieu Lévesque.

“There would be no point in having these two investigations at the same time, so there would be no added value in that,” he added.

However, the CAQ is demonstrating “once again its lack of respect for the National Assembly” by refusing a parliamentary commission on the SAAQclic scandal, argued Québec solidaire co-spokesperson Guillaume Cliche-Rivard.

Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, leader of the Parti Québécois, added at a press briefing: “They are doing everything they can to prevent us from asking any questions” of SAAQ executives and former executives.

The Gallant Commission will begin its work shortly, despite repeated calls from the Liberals and the PQ for Judge Gallant to recuse himself, given his ties to Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel.

Denis Gallant announced on April 1 that he had no intention of recusing himself. He did, however, undertake to limit his contact with witnesses known to him.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French April 8, 2025.

Caroline Plante, The Canadian Press