SAAQclic: Gallant Commission considers having Premier François Legault testify

The Gallant Commission is considering having Premier François Legault testify as part of its investigation into the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s (SAAQ) digital transformation failures.

The information was confirmed to CityNews by a commission spokesperson via email on Monday.

The premier’s office was reportedly informed of problems related to the SAAQ’s IT project, including possible cost overruns, as early as 2020, according to what was revealed last week at the Gallant Commission.

A former right-hand man of Legault’s at the Ministère du Conseil exécutif, Yves Ouellet, was also reportedly informed in September 2022 of a $222 million shortfall in delivering the SAAQclic platform.

Legault has so far consistently pleaded ignorance surrounding the cost overruns related to the SAAQ’s IT systems modernization project, called CASA (Carrefour des services d’affaires).

LeBel, Dubé to testify

Earlier Monday, the commission’s chief prosecutor Simon Tremblay announced Treasury Board President Sonia LeBel and Minister of Health and Social Services Christian Dubé will be called to testify. The two CAQ ministers are scheduled to appear Thursday and Friday.

Dubé has been summoned in connection with his tenure as president of the Treasury Board from October 2018 to June 2020.

Their colleague Éric Caire, who served as Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Technology from 2022 to February 2025, will first give his version of events on Tuesday, after hearing from his former chief of staff and a former deputy minister at the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Technology.

The former president of the Treasury Board under the Philippe Couillard government, Pierre Moreau, has also been called to testify at the end of the week.

Last week, CAQ ministers François Bonnardel and Geneviève Guilbault testified before the public inquiry commission.

The modernization of the SAAQ’s computer systems, which includes the SAAQclic platform, is expected to cost at least $1.1 billion, or $500 million more than anticipated, according to the Auditor General of Quebec, who who released a report in February.

The CASA project, which includes the SAAQclic platform, is expected to cost at least $1.1 billion, $500 million more than expected, according to the Auditor General of Quebec.

Overruns of $142 million in 2020

Monday was devoted to the testimony of a former deputy minister at the MCE, Pierre E. Rodrigue, who was also the chief information officer (CIO) within the Treasury Board secretariat.

Rodrigue’s testimony highlighted that parts of the digital shift had already exceeded their budget in the summer of 2020. For two lots of the CASA project, the SAAQ planned an additional sum totalling $142 million in less than a year.

These figures were in the books of the Treasury Board, Rodrigue acknowledged. “We were not yet in the perspective of cost overruns,” says the official, maintaining that the budget was still respected compared to the initial cost of the contract with the consortium.

Rodrigue testified to the difficulty for his team to monitor the evolution of the total cost of the project because of a decree adopted in 2014 under the PQ government of Pauline Marois. It received information in a segmented manner, while the SAAQ was exempt from certain accountability and governance provisions.

“What we saw were small projects that came in a row, that started, that ended, and that we had to try to follow, then associate with CASA. (…) I don’t know if they’re smashing (their budget). Project by project, they are all correct,” said Rodrigue.

A reform carried out under the Couillard government brought down the 2014 decree, but this did not prevent the SAAQ from conducting its CASA project in the same way with the Treasury Board and ignoring the new legal framework.

The proposal for a new agreement to remedy the situation and tighten control circulated in the fall of 2020, but it was never adopted. It would have remained in the hands of the office of the Minister of Transport, according to Rodrigue.

In the summer of 2020, Caire, then Minister for Government Digital Transformation, wanted “a recovery plan” from the Crown corporation. During a meeting with Rodrigue, the minister questioned “the possibilities of greater supervision of the SAAQ project,” according to a report shown to the commission.

“Do we have authority or are we the sad spectators?” the minister asked at the time.

Rodrigue suggested that this “recovery plan” was in line with the one-year postponement of the schedule for the deployment of SAAQclic.

In addition, this postponement brought a concern in terms of the profits generated by CASA. In the fall of 2020, the project was identified by a red light on a dashboard issued by the Treasury Board secretariat on various programs monitored by the State.

“If we postpone for a year and a contract is consumed faster than expected, the profits will be reduced by the same amount,” Rodrigue told the commission.

This table was intended for various CAQ elected officials sitting on the Treasury Board, including LeBel and Caire, Rodrigue does not know if this document has been consulted by the latter.

Rodrigue is scheduled to continue his testimony Tuesday morning. In the wake of the publication of the VGQ report last February, Rodrigue was removed by the government from the presidency of the Office des professions du Québec, even though he had just been appointed to this position. He himself is said to have announced in a letter his intention to resign.

–With files from La Presse Canadienne

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews