SAAQ: Rodriguez calls for independent oversight
Posted September 2, 2025 10:31 am.
Last Updated September 2, 2025 11:32 am.
The Official Opposition on Tuesday called for an independent firm to oversee the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), contradicting its Transport critic, Monsef Derraji.
Provincial Liberal Leader Pablo Rodriguez believes that the CAQ government is ill-positioned to exercise oversight, since it is incapable of managing public funds itself.
In a press scrum Tuesday morning in Parliament, Rodriguez contradicted the position of his Transport critic, Derraji, who was at his side, who had demanded that the government place the SAAQ under oversight.
“I’m giving you the leader’s position,” the new Liberal leader declared.
“We want to give a government that has been extremely incompetent oversight of a company that has managed things very poorly, that has covered things up. Do I trust that? No!” Do I trust the other party? No.”
As for who could be entrusted with the supervision, Rodriguez replied: “We’ll see then, the external mechanism,” without providing further details.
The PLQ subsequently indicated that discussions were already taking place within the parliamentary wing on the supervision that should be put in place and the mechanisms that existed.
The commission of inquiry chaired by Judge Denis Gallant has now been examining the SAAQclic fiasco for several weeks, the digital shift in which the government corporation has been mired for several years.
On Tuesday morning, during his appearance, François Legault assured that no one had told him about cost overruns before February 2025, when the Auditor General’s report was tabled.
“It’s not normal that I learned as late as February 2025 about the $500 million cost overruns,” he said.
“It was never clear that there was a $500 million overspend,” he added.
“It’s not right that the Auditor General is the one informing us of the $500 million overspend. Someone should have seen it before the $500 million overspend.”
He had only heard about “implementation problems.”
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
