SAAQ initially estimated its technological transformation at $200 million

Posted May 1, 2025 6:21 pm.
In 2015, the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) estimated its technological transformation at $200 million over 10 years, one month before launching its tendering process.
This was revealed Thursday at the Gallant Commission, which is examining the setbacks with the Crown corporation’s CASA software program, including the SAAQclic transactional platform. According to the Auditor General of Quebec (AGQ), the project will cost a minimum of $1.1 billion by 2027, if the final phases of the plan are implemented.
Commission prosecutor Alexandre Thériault-Marois revealed the request submitted by the SAAQ to the Treasury Board Secretariat in April 2015 for special terms and conditions for its tendering process, which was approved.
Thériault-Marois presented the document to a lawyer specializing in public contracts, Stéphane Lépine, for analysis.
According to the request signed by the SAAQ CEO and the then Minister of Transport, Nathalie Tremblay and Robert Poëti, the modernization of the organization’s IT systems was estimated at $200 million over 10 years.
The value of the contract to be signed with external firms was estimated at $125 million. The Crown corporation also estimated that using its employees could cost it $75 million. However, it planned to require bidders to indicate what they believed the organization would have to pay for its internal resources, according to Lépine’s reading.
The framework contract ultimately awarded to a group of external firms in June 2017 was worth $458.4 million. However, this amount excluded internal expenses, according to the VGQ report.
The VGQ states in its report, published last February, that the costs related to work carried out by SAAQ staff were estimated at $179.6 million in the initial budget.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews