Éric Caire informed of cost increase of SAAQclic, but not of its extent in 2021

Former Minister of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs Éric Caire wrote in Sept. 2021 that the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s (SAAQ) IT project had been “cost overrun (…) for a long time.” 

Caire continued his testimony Wednesday morning before the Gallant Commission, which is investigating the SAAQ’s failed digital shift.

He had to explain an email exchange dated Sept. 10, 2021. His chief of staff, Julie Bérubé, informed him that an information note had been sent to the office of the Minister of Transport on the status of the project called CASA (Carrefour des services d’affaires), which includes the SAAQclic platform. 

Bérubé indicates that “CASA’s concern is the same as that of the rest of Quebec: a lack of HR (human resources). Thus, this lack of HR could affect the budget and timeline of the CASA project.” 

Caire responds that he doubts that “the labour shortage explains everything” regarding the difficulties related to the CASA project. “They had been overrunning costs and deadlines for a long time,” said Caire, who was at the time Minister Delegate for Government Digital Transformation. 

When questioned about this statement before the committee, Caire claimed to be unaware of the extent of the cost overrun at the time. The information remained unclear, and he did not know the cost of the contract with the consortium or the total budget for the project, the CAQ member said. 

Commissioner Denis Gallant asked him how he could claim at that time that CASA was facing cost overruns if he was unaware of the total cost of the digital shift. 

Caire mentioned that the effect of the pandemic and the one-year postponement of the deployment of SAAQclic were causing “budgetary impacts.”   

“Yes, I have an idea that there will be cost overruns. But if you ask me: do I know at that point that we’re going to go over, that we’re going to pay $940 million for the project? The answer to that, Mr. Commissioner, is no, absolutely not,” the elected official said.  

Caire said he first became aware of CASA’s budgetary profile in June 2022, less than a year before the launch of SAAQclic.

Caire said he had not taken any specific steps to monitor costs or inquire about the order of the budget increases. He said this mandate was not within his remit. 

“It’s an independent organization (the SAAQ). It’s an organization that is run by a board of directors. Does the Minister for Digital Transformation monitor projects? Yes. But does budgetary responsibility fall to the board of directors? Most certainly,” he maintained. 

According to Caire, CASA was not, at the time, in “a situation where this project was going badly, where there were alarm bells.”

The CASA project should cost at least $1.1 billion, or $500 million more than expected, according to the Auditor General of Quebec (VGQ).

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews