SAAQclic and Geneviève Guilbault: Committee meets Wednesday

It could be known on Wednesday whether Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault will have to appear before a parliamentary committee for contempt of Parliament, The Canadian Press has learned.

The National Assembly’s committee will meet on Wednesday to decide what action to take in response to this outrage.

On Dec. 5, the President of the National Assembly, Nathalie Roy, concluded that the minister had committed contempt of Parliament by failing to submit within the prescribed timeframe the 2023 annual report of the Société d’assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ), which is currently mired in the SAAQclic scandal. 

Failure to file an annual report may constitute contempt, as it deprives parliamentarians of their right to scrutinize government action.

The National Assembly’s committee, which meets rarely, is convened on Wednesday to investigate the matter.

“This is the first meeting of the Commission in several years,” argued Monday the parliamentary leader of the official Liberal opposition, Monsef Derraji, who had argued that there had been contempt last December.   

“I will propose (a list of) those who will be involved in the investigation, to understand the reasons for this outrage,” he explained. 

In an interview with The Canadian Press, he said he was considering summoning the president of the SAAQ, Éric Ducharme, as well as Guilbault.

However, he will have to convince his counterparts from other political parties on Wednesday morning, notably the government leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, and Guillaume Cliche-Rivard, from Québec solidaire (QS).

“There is no doubt that a failure to table a document in the Assembly when the law requires it constitutes a prima facie contempt,” Nathalie Roy ruled in her decision rendered just before question period on Dec. 5.

Under the principle of ministerial responsibility, “a minister is responsible to Parliament not only for his actions, but also for those of the officials of his ministry or the bodies under his responsibility,” she continued.

“The mere fact of mentioning that she did not receive the document is not sufficient to release her from her obligation to the Assembly,” the president argued, recalling that, in a similar situation in the past, a minister had submitted a summary report.

In response, Guilbault assured that she had not intended to infringe on the rights and privileges of the Assembly and indicated that she had asked the SAAQ to prepare a “status report” pending the filing of the annual report.

–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews