SAAQclic: François Legault continues to plead ignorance about costs

Premier of Quebec François Legault continued to claim that he was unaware of the bill and cost overruns for the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec’s (SAAQ) IT project until last winter with the report from the Auditor General of Quebec (VGQ).

Legault delivered his highly anticipated testimony before the Gallant Commission on Tuesday in Montreal, during which he blamed the directors of the state-owned company. 

He insisted that he was only informed of the costs of the SAAQ’s technological modernization when the VGQ report was published last February. 

And it was only with the failed launch of the SAAQclic platform in February 2023 that he first heard about the company’s digital shift, the premier said.

“As for both the cost and the overrun, no one has spoken to me about this before February 2025. Until then, what I thought was that there was essentially a problem of implementation. (…) At the time, there were no questions of costs or overruns before February 2025,” he said.

The SAAQ’s digital shift, which includes the SAAQclic platform, is expected to cost at least $1.1 billion, according to the VGQ, or at least $500 million more than the initial budget. 

The CAQ leader acknowledged that information about the budget explosion should have reached him well before.

The commission’s chief prosecutor, Simon Tremblay, however, presented media reports from 2023 and 2024 reporting additional costs for the IT project called CASA. Legault assured that these reports had never been brought to his attention. 

The elected official was also questioned about an SAAQ document in which the company warned of a $222 million shortfall to complete the SAAQclic platform. This document was reportedly submitted in September 2022 to then-Secretary General Yves Ouellet, who worked directly under Legault. 

Legault said he had never seen the document, which showed a 45 per cent overrun on the contract and a reduced scope for the project. “I would have liked to have known,” he said. 

Legault acknowledged that his two transport ministers—Geneviève Guilbault and her predecessor, François Bonnardel—should have questioned the SAAQ more about the project’s cost. But Legault believes the information provided by the organization could have been “vague.” 

“What I understand is that the two Ministers of Transport never had, before February 2025, the information that there was an overrun of $500 million. They had part of the information (…) but they did not have all the information,” he maintained. 

His chief of staff, Martin Koskinen, also criticized the SAAQ on Tuesday for its way of transmitting information. His testimony followed that of Legault. 

Koskinen deplored the large number of documents attached to an email sent to SAAQ representatives in anticipation of the meeting with Ouellet in September 2022, where he would have learned of the $222 million shortfall. 

“For me, it’s problematic. There are many, many documents. The documents need to be clearer and more precise. (…) I have the impression that there was no desire for total transparency, but that’s an editorial on my part,” said Koskinen. 

According to him, Ouellet, with whom he communicated daily, would have warned him if he had been alerted to a financial issue. In the fall of 2022, discussions with the former head of the public service focused mainly on the SAAQ’s ability to successfully deploy the platform, Koskinen said. 

SAAQ management singled out

Legault also attacked the management of the state-owned company at the end of his testimony. 

“For me, the main problem comes from the SAAQ leadership,” declared the CAQ leader. 

“Because, first, I think the contract that was signed in 2017 poorly anticipated overruns and deadlines. Second, the integration of the new system in February (2023) was poorly planned. And third, I don’t want to say they hid things, but it seems that the information that was given was not clear,” he listed. 

Legault called for greater accountability of leaders. 

“It’s important that there are consequences for these people. A consequence isn’t transferring someone to another position. I understand that it’s not easy in government with job security, but (…) Quebecers expect there to be consequences,” Legault said. 

Legault was also questioned about the email Guilbault sent to him in December 2024, in which she requested changes at the head of the SAAQ. 

In this email, Guilbault notably mentioned “a very likely disastrous VGQ report coming in February.” In Legault’s eyes, this statement could refer to the failures of the SAAQclic launch that led to long queues in front of SAAQ service points in the winter of 2023. 

“I had no doubts that it would be about overtaking,” he said. 

“Room to maneuver” for spending

The SAAQ signed a $458 million contract in 2017 with the consortium formed by IBM-owned LGS and SAP. This amount has exploded in recent years, including extras worth tens of millions of dollars. 

Koskinen was also asked what he knew about the cost overruns. 

He stated that, to his recollection, the information transmitted on this subject to his team or to the former Secretary General of the Executive Council, Dominique Savoie, had never reached him in 2023 and 2024. He was also not alerted by figures put forward by the media during this same period. 

For the chief of staff, it is not surprising that additional sums are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of SAAQclic and to rectify the situation. 

He argued that “to get the train back on track, there will be expenses, both in terms of people providing services in the branches and the IT aspect.”

“What surprised us politically when the Auditor General’s report was tabled was the scale of the sums required compared to the initial budget,” said Koskinen. 

According to him, former CEO Éric Ducharme had “the leeway to spend to provide service to citizens” when he took over the SAAQ in April 2023. 

“Once the site is launched and there are fixes to be made, everyone assumes there will be expenses. But it’s the scale of the sums that made us all react so strongly when the report came out,” Koskinen added. 

Former Secretary General Yves Ouellet is due to testify on Wednesday morning. 

In a dispatch concerning the Gallant Commission transmitted on Tuesday, Sept. 2, 2025, it was written in the 14th paragraph that an email containing several documents had been sent to the office of former Secretary General Yves Ouellet. In fact, the email was only addressed to representatives of the SAAQ.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews