Gallant Commission: Government IT staff down, union says

The use of outsourcing for information technology (IT) mandates has surged within the Quebec government apparatus, while internal expertise is suffering staff losses, even within the Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs (MCN). 

This is what the Quebec Public and Parapublic Service Union (SPFQ) put forward Thursday morning before the Gallant Commission, which is investigating the SAAQclic fiasco. 

According to figures presented by the union organization, the value of IT service contracts in the Quebec government amounted to $1.3 billion in 2018-2019, compared to $2.1 billion in 2023-2024. 

At the same time, the IT staff represented by the SFPQ in the public service fell by 8.8 per cent between Sept. 2024 and Sept. 2025. At the MCN, the drop is 1.8 per cent, while at the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), it is around 5 per cent for the same period, according to the union. 

The latter also states that within technical and office staff, the proportion of positions occupied by external IT resources represents around 78 per cent in the Quebec public service. This percentage rises to 86 per cent at the MCN alone. 

SFPQ President Christian Daigle denounced this situation. On the one hand, the government can claim to be reducing departmental budgets by reducing staff, but on the other hand, “through the back door,” it is awarding more subcontracts, since internal staff are no longer sufficient to carry out the work, according to him. 

“For us, this poses a problem and it leads to additional expenditure costs for all Quebec taxpayers,” Daigle told the commission of inquiry. 

Alongside him, the president of the Union of Government Professionals of Quebec, Guillaume Bouvrette, also deplored the government’s dependence on subcontracting. 

Messrs. Bouvrette and Daigle stated that they agreed with the use of subcontracting, but only for specific needs or for cutting-edge expertise not available internally. 

“The use of subcontracting is far too widespread at present,” Bouvrette argued.

“The Ministry of Cybersecurity and Digital Affairs was supposed to make us less dependent on outsourcing, but unfortunately, that’s not the case. We see that rising costs continue after 2021, the year the (MCN) was created,” Daigle said. “We’re seeing the direct impact of the staff shortage.”

Reform of lobbying law needed 

Quebec’s Lobbying Commissioner, Jean-François Routhier, called for reform of the Lobbying Transparency and Ethics Act.

Lobbyisme Québec analyzed the entries published in the lobbyists’ registry by the main companies that won contracts under the SAAQ’s IT program, called CASA (Carrefour des services d’affaires), which includes the SAAQclic project. 

Between 2013 and 2025, no registration “specifically or specifically targeted” the CASA project. “Furthermore, the registrations are all generic and imprecise,” targeting various public institutions and numerous types of IT contracts, Routhier said Thursday afternoon. 

This situation raises a lack of transparency, and makes it “impossible” for a citizen, in particular, to understand the scope of lobbying activities and to make a direct link with the CASA project, he believes. 

In the eyes of Routhier, this shows the limits of the law regarding lobbying. 

“One of the recommendations and one of the observations we make is that the current law does not allow us to go far enough and make demands, in particular to know: were the communications carried out or not? (…) Who did you meet and for what purpose?”, he maintained.

These requirements are necessary to allow, among other things, citizens to exercise their right to information in order to “ask questions and raise flags,” explained Routhier. 

Extension for filing the report

The Legault government has agreed for a second time to postpone the date by which the Gallant commission must submit its report and recommendations.

Under this new postponement, announced Thursday morning, the commission will have until Feb. 13, 2026 to complete its work.

In a brief statement, the office of Justice Minister Simon Jolin-Barrette did not provide any explanation for this new postponement.

Commissioner Denis Gallant was originally due to submit his final report by Sept. 30. In June, the government extended this deadline to Dec. 15.

After hearing from politicians and current and former employees of the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), the Gallant Commission is hearing testimony from experts this week.

Public hearings are scheduled to end on Friday.

Let us recall that the SAAQ’s failed digital shift is expected to cost taxpayers at least $1.1 billion by 2027, or $500 million more than expected, according to calculations by the Auditor General of Quebec.

When he launched the commission of inquiry into SAAQclic last March, François Legault mentioned that Judge Gallant’s conclusions would be made public before the October 2026 elections.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews