SAAQclic fiasco: PLQ demands SAAQ be placed under trusteeship

The official opposition in Quebec City is demanding that the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) be placed under trusteeship, after it considered dipping into the victims’ compensation fund to cover its deficits.

Former SAAQ Internal Audit Director Daniel Pelletier revealed this idea on Tuesday, when he testified before the Gallant commission investigating SAAQclic’s failings.

His testimony sent shockwaves all the way to the National Assembly, where opposition parties described the idea of dipping into the fund for road accident victims as “horrifying” and “completely immoral”.

“We’re asking (Premier) François Legault to get involved (…) and put the SAAQ under trusteeship,” interim Quebec Liberal leader Marc Tanguay told a press scrum. Let him stop the CAQ SAAQclic fiasco from getting any bigger!”

Legault immediately dismissed Tanguay’s request, saying he wanted to wait for the Gallant commission to finish its work before possibly taking action.

But his government later supported a Liberal Party motion to the effect that the victims’ compensation fund was not intended to “mop up deficits resulting from the mismanagement of IT projects”.

Earlier, in a press scrum, Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault had declared that “taking money away from road accident victims to pay for SAAQclic” was out of the question.

“The use we can make of the money in that fund is prescribed by legislation. So we can’t do whatever we want with that money,” she explained.

The government can use surpluses to reduce the cost of driver’s licenses, or to finance road safety activities, she said.

It can be prevention campaigns,” she illustrated. We did a campaign that was very well received (…) with Katherine Levac, who is our road safety spokesperson.”

In a press release distributed to journalists on Wednesday morning, the SAAQ confirmed that it was analyzing a scenario in which it would redirect a larger amount to road safety.

This “review of the allocation of road safety prevention activities” would have “no connection” with SAAQclic. “The fund (…) cannot be used to cover SAAQ’s deficit,” the corporation acknowledged.

Moreover, additional investment in road safety would not compromise the fund’s “sound financial health”, and therefore would not affect its “ability to compensate road accident victims”, it added.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews