Delay in filing SAAQ annual report: Guilbault reprimanded in National Assembly
Posted December 5, 2024 5:18 pm.
Quebec Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault was reprimanded in the National Assembly Thursday.
The minister has still not tabled the 2023 annual management report of the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), although it should have been tabled before April 30, by law.
The government had argued the SAAQ had implemented a new computer system, which delayed the production of financial statements, but the official Liberal Opposition suspects there are other problems at play.
“We have a state-owned company that cannot close its year,” Liberal MNA Monsef Derraji told reporters.
“I find it disturbing. There is a problem with the financial statements, we don’t know what it is? What are the issues within the SAAQ and why has the annual report not been filed?”
Last week the official Opposition demanded the tabling of the document, and the Speaker of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, ruled in its favour.
“There is no doubt that a failure to table a document in the Assembly when the law requires it constitutes a prima facie contempt,” argued Roy in her decision rendered just before question period.
Under the principle of ministerial responsibility, “a minister is responsible to Parliament not only for their actions, but also for those of the officials in their department or the bodies under their responsibility,” she continued.
“The mere fact of mentioning not having received the document is not sufficient to release her from her obligation towards the Assembly,” argued the president, recalling that in a similar situation in the past, a minister had submitted a summary report.
In response, Guilbault assured that she had not wanted to infringe on the rights and privileges of the Assembly and indicated that she had asked the SAAQ to prepare a “status report” while waiting for the filing of the annual report.
The SAAQ has experienced its share of failures and setbacks, particularly with the implementation of the SAAQclic system.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
