SAAQclic fiasco: CAQ under fire as government opens investigations into plagued program

Quebec is opening two new investigations into SAAQclic following a damning report from the auditor general.

The fallout from the SAAQclic fiasco is far from over.

Quebec is opening two new investigations into the issues related to the online system following a damning report from the auditor general, which details facts the Deputy Premier calls “outrageous.”

For the entire 45-minute Question Period at the national assembly, the government was grilled about the SAAQclic program. The minister of digital technology, Éric Caire, said the Coalition Avenir Québec was lied to.

The SAAQ digital portal launched in 2023. It was originally budgeted at $638 million but now it’s likely to cost more than $1.1 billion.

Last week, the auditor general issued a scathing report describing it as a total failure.

The transport minister says when it comes to how bad the situation was, the government was misled. Now, Quebec is opening two investigations to figure out what went wrong.

Geneviève Guilbualt said it’s a good thing this will be examined by Quebec’s anti-corruption unit. In a letter to UPAC, Quebec’s anti-corruption unit, she says the auditor general’s report “sheds light on major shortcomings in the administration of the biggest digital transformation project in the province,” including “incomplete planning,” “a cost increase that could reach $1.1 billion, 40 per cent more than originally estimated,” and “sharing incomplete and erroneous information to the government.”

She goes on to say: “The facts stated by the auditor general are outrageous.”

‘Somebody has to be responsible’: opposition

The opposition calls it a lack of ministerial responsibility.

“How can there be so many people involved and, at the end, nobody does anything useful regarding more than $500 million in overpaying on that project only? Because we think other projects have the same problem. Somebody has to be responsible,” said Parti Québécois leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon.

Meanwhile, Ruba Ghazal, Québec solidaire co-spokesperson, said, “All the questions that have [not] been answered by the Vérificatrice générale and her report will not be answered. The only way to do it is to have a public inquiry.”

“We want to know what part of the responsibility is coming from the SAAQ and what part is coming from the minister,” Marc Tanguay, the interim Liberal leader, said.

The premier counters that those ministers weren’t properly informed.

The head of the SAAQ at the time was removed in 2023. But two years later, the situation described by all parties as a fiasco still isn’t over.